The Rise and Fall of Black Ash
by Nightfury991
Summary: Sequel to the White Furies. On the run from the demented Black Ash, Marko, Hiccup and some of their friends come across a place they thought they'd never see again: the ruins of Molak. Along the way, they're betrayed by one of their own, they discover a second piece of writings that relate to the prophecy of Marko and Black Ash, and Ice finds out she's carrying Toothless' child..
1. One Week Later

The Rise and Fall of Black Ash

Chapter 1:

It had been over a week since the island of Berk had fallen to the hands of Black Ash, the evil counter-part of a boy named Marko. When Black Ash, along with another tribe leader called Alvin the Treacherous, had joined forces and invaded Berk, it had been slaughter: the entire village of the island had been overrun. Most of the villagers had been killed and their bodies been thrown out to the mercy of the sea. Some, however, were allowed to live, but it was a life of misery: every morning, they were put to work as miners, digging deep into the ground, not knowing when they were looking for. And every night, they would come back to the surface, empty handed and weak.

Astrid, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs were some of the few who were lucky enough to survive: Stoic and Golbber, on the other hand, had been killed. But the whole group of survivors knew one thing about Stoic and Golbber's death: they had gone out defending their island, and that's what counts in Viking culture. Before they had started digging, they were forced to build a sort of watch tower in the middle of where the Great Hall used to be, but it was in fact built so Black Ash could keep an eye out; in case a certain band of people who had escaped come back...

"**Any sightings?" **growled an annoyed Black Ash, as he climbed a ladder into the viewing level. The Viking who was on duty, a rather mean-looking and heavily muscular one, shook his head and made his way down the ladder that Black Ash had just come up. Sighing heavily, Black Ash walked away from the ladder and towards the side of the watch tower. As he looked out to sea, he heard another person coming up to start their look out shift.

"Why are you up here, Black Ash?" asked Alvin, walking up to Black Ash and he put both his arms behind his back, looking out to sea. **"I just wanted to make sure...never mind," **Black Ash sighed, and continued to look out to the fading light. "You still think he's gonna come back, don't you?" asked Alvin, trying to get more information out of him. **"I know him: sooner or later, he WILL show up. And when that happens...the Battle for Berk will commence" **growled Black Ash, scrunching his hands into fists.

Nodding his head slowly, Alvin said, "Right, then. I'll leave you to it." Nodding goodbye, Alvin went back down the ladder and left Black Ash alone. Sighing, Black Ash turned back and started to head towards the ladder, but he stopped when he heard something. Turning around, he saw a silhouette of a medium sized Dragon, with someone on it, flying as fast as it could away from the island. Growling in annoyance, Black Ash pulled out his sword, the one with the bone handle, and swung it right through a wooden guard to stop the watchman from falling to his or hers death.

_**There all pathetic! How can an entire tribe not see a Dragon!**_ thought Black Ash, putting his sword back into its sheath. Shaking his head, Black Ash thought, _**Oh well: they won't be like this for much longer.**_ Chuckling darkly, Black Ash walked towards the edge of the watch tower, and lent over the guard, and watched as the sun went below the sea, thinking, _**Where is he? Where is Marko?**_


	2. The Camp

Chapter 2:

_Location – Unknown_

Breathing deeply, a rider and their Dragon landed on a beach after a long flight. Looking around, the rider spotted three tents near the tree line. Sighing in relief, the person dismounted his Dragon and walked towards the tents, with his Dragon following. This boy's name was Marko, and his Dragon's, Ice: they were amongst the few Survivors of Molak AND amongst the hand full who managed to escape Berk before Black Ash overran the village.

When he was within a few meters of the first tent, he saw another person, again a boy, sitting just in front of the shore, shaving away strips of wood off of a piece of drift wood. The boy in question was wearing a blood red bandana around his forehead, and a fury white vest, showing his six pack of muscles and muscular arms: this was Fradokos, a close friend of Marko, and another survivor of both the islands. _"Has there been any difference since I left?" _spoke Marko is a strange language of grunts and hisses: this was Dragonese, the language of the Dragons and a common gift amongst the White Fury tribe.

Grunting in response, Fradokos started to carve off large amounts of wood: he had been giving Marko the cold shoulder ever since they escaped Berk, especially when...Marko shook his head: the memories were too bad. Upon hearing tent flaps opening, Marko saw another member of their tribe, this time a women, exit the middle tent and started to walk towards them. Unlike Fradokos, she wore a white hoodie, much like the one Marko always wore, but she was wearing one that didn't have any sleeves, but instead, she wore black, fingerless gloves: this women's name was Rachel. _"How is he?"_ asked Marko, looking towards the tent behind Rachel.

Shaking her head, Rachel replied, _"He's still the same as the past few days, but the wounds are healing."_ Sighing, Marko asked, _"I'll take over looking after him now. You go and look for some food."_ Nodding her head, Rachel picked up a large backpack from the tent to the left of the middle one, and made her way towards the tree line, hoping to find food of some description. After she was out of eye sight, Marko made his way towards the middle tent. And when he was inside the tent and the flaps closed behind him, he saw a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Lying down in front of him, with a bloodied bandage wrapped tightly around his forehead, was Hiccup: the last survivor, as far as Marko knew, of Berk's village. "Hey, Hiccup," said Marko, placing something long and covered with some brown leather next to the unconscious Viking. "Look what I managed to save," Marko continued, unwrapping the package he had got from the burnt remains of Berk: it was a sword, slightly blackened by a fire of sorts, but the handle, in the shape of a bronze Night Fury head, was still easily recognisable. Sighing, Marko ran his finger gently over the sword: it was the sword he had given Hiccup just hours before Black Ash returned to Berk.

"Hiccup, I managed to get this from the island," said Marko, showing the sword to Hiccups unmoving form, hoping that it would somehow awaken him. After a few minutes, Hiccups body was still unresponsive, so Marko gave up. Sighing in defeat, Marko picked the sword back up again and wrapped it back up it the leather, and was about to leave the tent when he heard, "Oh, man, that must have been some night." A smile plastered to his face, Marko turned around to find that Hiccup was awake, and looking at Marko with a questioning expression. Once Hiccup had gotten over the shock of not knowing where he was, he placed his hand over his forehead, and felt the bandage covering it, he looked up at Marko and asked, "Ok, how long have I been out, and where are we?" Chuckling, Marko offered Hiccup a hand up, which Hiccup gratefully accepted. When they were out in the sun light, Hiccup looked around to see if he could recognise any of the surrounding area.

After a few minutes, Hiccup gave up and said, "Ok, so tell me: where exactly are we?" Shaking his head, Marko said, "All I know is that we're about a week's travel away from Berk and we're not going back any time soon." Waving his hands in front of him, Hiccup said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm still missing something here: what happened after I passed out?" Shaking his head, Marko placed his hand on Hiccups shoulder, and said, "I'll tell you later." Hiccup was about to reply, when they heard a noise coming from the tree line.

It was Rachel, panting heavily and had dropped the backpack in the forest somewhere, seeing as she wasn't carrying it on her back or on her arm. When she was reached the tents, she gasped, "Marko...I've seen...something...in the forests..." Marko stopped her and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa: breathe first, then talk." Nodding her head, Rachel put her hands on her knees and started breathing deeply. After about a minute, Rachel's breathing had calmed down and she said, "I've found something that you might find interesting." Curious, Marko said, "Well, show me the way."

Nodding, Marko, Rachel and Hiccup started to head towards the tree line, but Hiccup was stopped by Marko's arm blocking his way. "Oh, no: you're not going anywhere. You're staying right here until we get back." Looking annoyed at Marko, Hiccup said, "I am old enough to go somewhere without someone helping me." Suddenly, a wave of pain made its way across Hiccup, making him groan in pain and forcing him to sit down. "We'll be back in a few minutes, ten max," said Marko, before he and Rachel walked back into the tree line, and out of sight.

_Marko and Rachel – Beyond the tree line_

"So, where exactly is this thing that's so important?" asked Marko, looking around and trying mentally to guess which way the thing Rachel was on about. "Follow me," said Rachel, gesturing with her hand and started heading towards a direction deeper into the forest. Shaking his head and sighing, Marko followed her.

After a few minutes' walk, the two arrived at a darkened cave entrance which was partly covered by other rocks. "Is this it?" asked Marko, pointing into the cave. Rachel nodded. Marko tried to look deeper into the cave, but it was impossible. "It would help if you had a torch," explained Rachel, a small smile of amusement as Marko tried to see into the cave without a torch. Eyes widening in realisation, Marko said matter-of-factly, "Yes, a torch...I was just about to suggest that."

Looking around, Marko saw a large branch that had broken off a nearby tree. Picking it up, he then ripped his right arm sleeve and wrapped it tightly around one end of the branch. "Pity one of the Dragons aren't here," said Rachel, as Marko continued to look for something else. Picking up two rocks, Marko turned to face her and said, "Who needs Dragons when you got rocks?" He then smashed the rocks together, creating sparks and lighting the sleeve around the branch.

Motioning for Rachel to follow him into the cave, Marko slipped into the cave and instantly the entire

Cave was thrown into a bright orange colour. Looking around, Marko saw something that looked like it was painted on at the end of the cave. Walking deeper in the cave, the image became clearer until it became clear enough for Marko to recognise it.

The image looked like a white V with two red ovals at an angle, but the two lines on the V were curved. To anyone else, this symbol would be harder to understand than a Japanese instruction manual, but to Marko and Rachel, and possibly Fradokos, it would easily reconsiged: it was the symbol of home.


	3. A Glimpse into the Past

Chapter 3:

_Five years ago – Molak_

"Auntie, I'm going out now! See ya in a few hours," shouted a 14-year-old Marko as he walked out of his house. "Just make sure you're back by dark," shouted a feminine voice. Closing the door behind him, Marko pulled his hood up and walked to the centre of Molak, where he had agreed to meet Rachel and Fradokos.

As he walked, Marko looked around at the village, and saw several smaller children chasing after a small pack of Terrible Terrors, giggling as they did so. One of the Terrors, one with dark-green scales and small red horns on its head, jumped onto one of the nearby houses, and climbed up until it was safely on the roof. Chuckling softly, Marko said, _"Get down here, you."_ Marko heard the Terror chuckle slightly, before he flapped up wings and landed on Marko's shoulder.

"_Long time, no see, Mystery,"_ croaked the Terror as he nuzzled Marko's face._ "It has been a while, hasn't it, Sparks?" _replied Marko, stroking the top of Sparks' head, to which he purred quietly. Marko then said, _"Listen, Sparks, I've got to meet some friends in the centre. I'll see you some other time, OK Sparks?" _Sparks nodded and flapped his wings, and chased after the rest of his pack. Chuckling, Marko continued towards the centre of the village.

After a few more minutes more walk, Marko saw two figures standing next to the towns' central well: it was Fradokos, who was wearing his signature blood-red bandana, and Rachel, who was wearing her signature black fingerless gloves. "Hey, Marko!" shouted Fradokos, and Rachel turned around to greet their friend. "How you doing, my friends?" asked Marko, walking up to them and knuckle-bumped Fradokos. "So, you both ready to go exploring?" asked Marko, looking to how they were reacting. "Hey, we've got nothing better to do today, so what the hell?" said Fradokos, causing the three friends to chuckle. After another minute, Marko said, "Come on then: the Dragon's are waiting."

Once he had said that, all three of them brought their first finger and thumb up to their lips and whistled loudly. After a few seconds, they stopped and waited for their Dragons to arrive. Then, there were three large white blurs racing towards them, and just before they crashed into the three members of the Tribe, they stopped. _"You guys ready?" _asked Marko in Dragonese, and Ice, White Light and Cloud all nodded their heads. _"All right, then. Let's get going!"_ And with that, the three Dragons and their riders were nothing more than little dots in the sky.

After a few hours flight, the teens decided to take a break on an island that had come into view just a few minutes beforehand. Once they had landed, they dismounted their Dragons and went in search for something to eat. While they were doing that, this left the three White Furies to talk to themselves. _"So, Ice,"_ said White Light, sitting uncomfortably closer to her than Ice would've wanted, _"have you found a mate yet?"_ Sighing in annoyance, Ice replied, _"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times: you're...not...my...TYPE!"_ Cloud chuckled lightly at this display: this was the fifth time this week that White Light had tried to ask Ice to be his mate, without actual asking her to be his mate. And judging by Ice's annoyed expression, she was starting to crack.

"_Oh, come on!" _said White Light, getting up and walking in front of Ice, _"What's not to like about me?" _Snorting in annoyance, Ice said, _"OK, let me think: you're arrogant,"_ she took a step closer to White Light, as he took a step back, _"you only think of number one," _Ice took another step closer, as White Light took another step back. _"And, frankly, I wouldn't be your mate even if you begged!"_ Ice snarled at White Light, taking a final step which knocked the White Fury over. By this point, Cloud was on her back, laughing hard: she found is very amusing when her friends argued like this.

"_I'll take that as a no, then?" _asked White Light, causing Ice to let out a warning growl, shutting him up instantly. Just then, Rachel appeared from a gap in the tree line, gesturing for the three Dragons to follow her. Getting up, White Light, Ice and Cloud followed Rachel beyond the tree line. Once they had passed the trees, they came across a partly covered cave entrance with Fradokos in front of him, his arms crossed in patients. _"Mystery is already in there, Ice," _said Fradokos, _"he said he's gonna need you in there for something."_ Curious, Ice looked into the cave, and she saw a dim orange light coming from within it. Nodding, she entered the cave.

Once she was inside the cave, she spotted Marko at the far end, looking at something with interest. Getting closer, she saw that he was holding a thick branch with a roaring fire coming out of it in his right hand and was running his left hand down something that was on the cave wall. _"Interesting,"_ she heard him mutter, bringing his left hand back to his chin in thought. Hearing something behind him, Marko turned around to find Ice behind him, so he asked, _"Ice, perhaps you could tell me what this symbol is? I've seen it on the entrance to the Elder's Cave, but I've never found out what it is."_ Turning to face the thing Marko was looking at: it was, unknown to them, the same symbol that Marko and Rachel were to come into contact with four years later. However, the paints that were used on the symbol were a little brighter than they would be in four years time.

Looking back at Marko, Ice smiled sweetly, and said, _"Oh, Marko: so old, yet so much to learn. The symbol you have taken an interest in,"_ as she gestured to the symbol, _"is both a warning and a sign: a warning to any intruders that wish to take over, and a sign to any member of the tribe, Dragon or human, that they are near home."_


	4. Some Secrets Revealed

Chapter 4

"No...Impossible," whispered Marko, dropping the torch, which left a short, dull _**dunk**_ ring throughout the cave. He then dropped to his knees, a look of shock passing his face. "We're nearly home," whispered Rachel, in an equally quiet tone. She then looked over to Marko, and was surprised to find he wasn't wearing a happy look on his face. "Marko, what's wrong?" Rachel asked, placing her hand gently on his shoulder. She then noticed that he had placed his hand over the symbol, reliving the actions that he did four years ago.

"I can't go back," Marko said suddenly, dropping his hand from the cave wall and bringing it back to his side, "not after what I did to it." Rachel sighed, and said, "Marko, how many times do I have to tell you: it wasn't you who destroyed Molak, it was Black Ash." But Marko wasn't listening: he just stood up, along with Rachel, who had now dropped her hand to her side, and said, "But if I didn't get angry in the first place, none of this would've happened: we wouldn't even be on the run!" Shaking his head, Marko stood on the fire end of the torch, and twisted his foot around, putting it out. "Come on," he said suddenly, "let's tell the others that we're moving tomorrow."

Once they exited the cave, they saw that the sun was just a few hours away from dipping behind the trees and the sea. "I'll collect some fire wood," said Marko, pointing to a nearby tree that had a lot of branches that were low to the ground, "then I'll meet you at the camp." Nodding, Rachel continued towards the direction of the camp as Marko started to hack branches off the trees with his wrist blade. After a few minutes, Rachel arrived at the camp to find Hiccup sitting outside of the tent on the left to the centre one. But, looking around, Rachel couldn't see Fradokos anywhere.

"Where's Fradokos?" asked Rachel, walking in between the centre and the left tent and stopped in front of Hiccup. "He's in that tent," said Hiccup, pointing to the tent opposite him and Rachel. Nodding, Rachel sat down next to Hiccup and reached into the tent, pulling out a leather water pouch. Handing it to Hiccup, Rachel said, "Marko will be back in a few minutes: he's just collecting some firewood." Nodding, Hiccup put the cork stopper back in place and passed it to Rachel. Hiccup then asked, "I've actually got a few questions that I want answering." Nodding in response, Rachel said, "Ok, then: shoot." Taking a deep breath, Hiccup asked, "OK, then, to start with, I'd like to ask where Toothless is?"

Sighing, Rachel brought her thumb and first finger to her lips and whistled, long and loud. After a few moments, a loud roar came from the tree tops. Then, a great black blur came rocketing towards the three tents. Once the black blur had landed in front of him, Hiccup realised that it was Toothless: a Night Fury that was once the most feared Dragon when Berk was at war with the Dragonkind. "Toothless!" gasped Hiccup, scratching the top of Toothless' head, to which the Night Fury purred in response. "B-B-But how? Last I knew you broke you ribs!" gasped Hiccup, looking at Rachel in wonder and question. But Rachel sighed, and said, "I think it would be better if Marko tells you what happened."

Sighing in frustration, Hiccup went back to leaning against the tent, only this time he was stroking Toothless, who was now curled up beside his rider's side. After another half an hour waiting, Marko finally appeared through the trees, carrying a large pile of branches in his arms. Once he was in the centre of the three tents, he piled the branches into an upside down cone shape. Once he had done that, he said something to Toothless in Dragonese, to which Toothless nodded and fired a small fireball at the wood, instantly setting it alight. After Marko had sat down next to Hiccup, Rachel said, "Marko, Hiccup wants to ask you a few questions." Looking at Hiccup like he knew some of the questions he was going to ask already, Marko said, "Fire away."

Taking a deep breath, Hiccup asked several questions, including the one he'd asked Rachel and several new ones. After a few more minutes of this, Marko sighed and rolled up his right armed sleeve to allow Hiccup to see his forearm. Eyes and mouth open in shock, Hiccup looked up at Marko and gasped, "How?" You see, the last time Marko had shown Hiccup his forearm, it was to show Hiccup one of this strange boys many secrets: several midnight black scales that had covered the entire space from his wrist to his elbow. But now, there wasn't a single black scale covering his forearm, only pale human skin.

"This happened just before we left Berk," explained Marko, gesturing to his forearm, "and it's the same reason why Toothless in healed. When we were heading back to where Toothless was, I felt this tingling sensation crawl across the scales, and when we reached Toothless, it felt as though the scales were wriggling across my normal skin. And when I was near Toothless, I don't know what came over me: I walked up to his and pressed the scales on my arm against the ones above Toothless' broken ribs. Then I started to speak random words that came into my head: I didn't even know what they meant, but they meant something. Anyway, my scales started to glow white, as well as Toothless' scales that I was touching. Once they had returned to being black, my scales started to melt off my arm and started to melt onto Toothless, which somehow mended his ribs."

Sighing in frustration, Hiccup, rubbing his temples, said, "Uh, too much to take in at once: I need to sleep." Bidding a final goodbye to his friends, Hiccup staggered towards the middle tent and disappeared behind the tent flaps. After another few minutes, Rachel got up and said, "Well, I'm hitting the sack: how long before you come in?" Thinking it over for a second, Marko replied, "Um, give it ten minutes, and I'll be it. Fifteen max." Smiling softly, Rachel muttered, "'Night, Marko," before disappeared through the tent flaps behind them. Nodding back, Marko looked up to the star-spotted night. After a few minutes, Marko felt his eyelids trying to close. Giving in, Marko rested his head against the sand, and felt sleep take her hold on him, unaware of what he would see in his dream...

* * *

**Well, I hope you've enjoyed the story so far, I'll try and upload the next chapter ASAP. But guys, I need some reviews to try and improve this or to tell me if I'm doing good.**

**Nf991**


	5. One Week Earlier

Chapter 5

_One week earlier - Berk_

"WHAT? We are the White Furies: we run from nothing!" shouted Fradokos, but Marko wasn't listening, seeing as he said, "You will do as I say: we will run and hide, and that is an order, Fradokos!" Gritting his teeth, Fradokos made a rather small nod in forced agreement. Sighing, Marko, who was not looking at his friends, said, "Mount your Dragons: we're out of here." Slightly unwillingly, Fradokos and Rachel mounted their Dragons and waited for Marko to follow them. **"You may go for now, but the teenagers stay with me,"** growled Black Ash, gesturing to Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout, all of whom had been grabbed by several of Alvin's tribe members.

"Deal," said Marko quickly, before the others could get a word in, "so long as Hiccup comes with me." After a few minutes silence, Black Ash, a cocky smile forming on his face, said, **"Deal."** Astrid, looking shocked, tightened her grip on the unconscious Hiccup, and shouted, "NO!" but she was grabbed by Alvin and Black Ash ripped Hiccup from her grasp and threw him at Marko, who was close enough to grab him before he fell. After placing him on Ice's back, Marko turned around to face Black Ash, and said, "This isn't over Black Ash: I WILL come back, and I WILL destroy you." But Black Ash only sneered and said, **"Do you not see? I have already won: you cannot defeat me!"**

Giving one finally look at his counterpart, Marko walked up to Ice, mounted her and he, Fradokos and Rachel took off to the point in the forest where Toothless was. "Why did you do it Marko?" asked Fradokos, flying level with Marko. Looking at Fradokos, Marko replied, _"I do most things for a reason, Fradokos."_ By this time, Rachel had levelled with the two boys, and said, "So does that mean that you have something up your sleeve, Marko?" But Marko didn't answer: he saw the area where Toothless was and started descending towards it, with Fradokos and Rachel following. When they had landed and dismounted, Fradokos asked, "Do, you don't have ANYTHING planned, do you?" But, yet again, Marko didn't answer, but started to walk over to Toothless, who hadn't moved since Black Ash had first returned to Berk.

As he got closer to Toothless, Marko started to feel a tingling sensation travel up and down his arm, centring on his scaled covered forearm. And when he reached the downed Night Fury, the feeling was starting to become painful. Looking down at Toothless, Marko started to role his sleeve, revealing his scales to the outside world. Once he had knelt down, Toothless quietly whined in concern, and Marko whispered, _"Do not worry, Shadow Fly: I know what I'm doing."_ However, Marko wasn't totally sure about what he was doing, but he had to reassure Toothless in case something happened. He then rested his scaled forearm against the broken ribs of Toothless.

For the first few seconds, nothing happened, although Toothless felt a little bit of pain from the pressure of Marko's arm. But then, a blinding white light burst from the connection point of Marko's arm and Toothless' uneven scaled chest. After the light had died down a bit, Toothless felt his broken ribs started to mend by themselves. Grunting in pain, Toothless looked at Marko with pain in his eyes. _"Shh, shh, it is quiet alright, Shadow,"_ muttered Marko, resting his left hand on Toothless' snout. Once the bones had been put back into their right place, Marko felt a burning sensation start to take over his right arm.

Looking down, Marko saw something that worried him: the scales, the ones his had had for his entire

Life, were starting to melt. But, the strangest thing was, Marko didn't feel any pain in his arm. After a few seconds, the scales now looked like they were a runny, midnight black wax, and was now making its way onto the area where Toothless' broken ribs once were. After another minute, the 'wax' had turned back into normal scales that blended in perfectly with Toothless' ones. Getting up again, Marko looked at his now human flesh arm: he had not seen human skin on this arm for, well...ever. By now, Toothless had gotten up, and was now walking in a circle, testing his newly mended ribs. Looking up at Marko, Toothless crooned, _"Thank you,"_ before looking at Hiccup, still passed out on Ice.

"_We have to go, now,"_ said Marko, rolling down his sleeve and mounting Ice. Looking at Toothless' tail, Marko noticed that, quite remarkably, the artificial tailfin had survived. Looking at his friends, he nodded and he signalled for Ice to start flying, to which Rachel, Fradokos and Toothless followed. After a few minutes of near vertical flying, they arrived to be just below the clouds. They then made their way towards the descending sun, as though never to return to Berk. _That is, until we find what I'm looking for,_ thought Marko, clutching something around his neck.


	6. A Wounded Fury

Chapter 6

Gasping, Marko sat up from his nightmare of a sleep. Looking around, Marko noticed that he was still at the camp site. Panting slightly, Marko ran his hand over his newly un-scaled forearm: he had never felt that part of his arm have normal skin before. Looking around, Marko spotted the tree line: he needed to get some fresh air. Getting up, Marko quietly stepped past the tents occupied by his friends, and made his way towards the trees. Once he had passed the tree line, he let out a shaky breath and started to walk deeper into the forest, giving him time to think.

_**Why is Fradokos acting this way?**_ Thought Marko, folding his arms and leaning against a tree, trying to think of a suitable answer, and a small voice said, _**it was because you acted like a coward!**_ "No!" Marko whispered furiously, getting up from the tree and walking farther still into the darkened forest. _**I did what had to be done!**_ He shouted in his mind, his right hand rested on something cold and circular that was hidden underneath his top. Sighing, Marko reached behind his neck: he needed to see it one more time.

Lifting a brown piece of string from around his neck, the string being tied at the back of his neck, and rested the single most important thing that he had left from his home in his hand. It was a small bronze circle, but it was almost hallow on the inside, leaving a thin ring on the outside. On the inside, the unmistakable image of an engraved White Fury head was carved out of the bronze. Sighing shakily, Marko gently ran his fingers over the slightly rough and worn surface of the medallion. His hands shaking slightly, Marko closed his fingers around the bronze circle. "Mum," whispered Marko, a single tear running down his cheek.

You see, Marko's mum died while she gave birth to him: he had never known her personally. But, the day after he completely the Dragon Initiation Ceremony (a ceremony on Molak where the Dragons choose their riders) Marko's aunt, who had looked after him when his mum and dad died, had given him something of his mother: it was the medallion, and it had the engraved White Fury head on one side, and had his mother's name on the other: _Elmatato_, which meant 'Everlasting Love' in Dragonese. Taking rasp breaths, Marko put the medallion back around his neck. After a few moments of near silence, save for the soft night wind blowing through the trees, Marko heard something rustling in the bushes opposite him.

"Who's there?" asked Marko, getting up from the tree and reaching for the sword on his back. But an answer never came; only the howling wind. Then, a shape moved in the bushes, before a grey shape moved into view: it was a large wolf, its fur a light grey colour, with darker patches covering the back of it. Its teeth were a weathered white and had drool dripping from the front teeth, and it was growling angrily at this intruder of his territory. Before Marko could react or pull his sword out completely, the wolf ran and leapt on Marko, knocking him over and knocking the sword out of his hand and out of reach.

Placing his hands of either side of the wolf's neck, Marko tried desperately to keep the wolf from biting him face off. After of some of the longest minutes that Marko had ever endured, he managed to throw the wolf up and over him, so it landed on its side, and left Marko panting slightly before he managed to get up and face the wolf, who by now had gotten back on its paws and started snarling at Marko, its fur raised and ears flat against its head. After a few nanoseconds standoff, the wolf leapt at Marko again,

This time, catching Marko's right arm in its mouth. Grunting in pain, Marko tried swinging his arm around to try and get the wolf off, but all it did was make the wolf dig it's teeth deeper into his arm to try and stay on. Thinking fast, Marko crunched his left hand into a fist, realising the blade from its hidden compartment, and started to stab the wolf in the stomach. The wolf let go of Marko's forearm and started howling in pain, blood dripping off it's under belly fur. Panting heavily and with blood dripping down his arm, Marko stood over the wounded wolf, which was now lying down in a puddle of its own blood, and ran his blade through the side of the wild animal's neck. After a few moments of waiting, the wolf's eyes misted over: it had bled to death.

After a few minutes of looking over the dead body of the wolf, Marko started to feel the pain of where the wolf had bitten him come to face him at full force. Not daring to look down, Marko ground the very top of the forearm with his other hand and started to look around, hoping to spot somewhere to stay the night: he didn't dare think about what the others would think or say if he came back to the camp with something gone bad with his arm. Looking around, Marko spotted a tree with large leaves: maybe he could use them to cover his wounds. Staggering towards the tree, Marko took a quick glance at his forearm, and regretted it instantly: on the top of his forearm, there were four bite marks that dug deep into his arm, and when he turned his arm over, there were another two bite marks with the blood starting to stop flowing: the cold air was clogging up the blood, making it slow.

Ripping off one of the leaves, Marko wrapped it around the wound, but found that it wouldn't stay in place. Looking at the tree which had the large leaves, he spotted a large bulge near his chest level. Using his knowledge he had gained from the time he had spent in the forests of Molak, he knew that this bulge was filled with sap. Scrunching his hand into a fist and realising his blade again, Marko took off a small chunk off the tree, and instantly, sticky, clear liquid started to come out of the hole in the tree. Wiping some of the sap onto the leaf, Marko wrapped the leaf tightly around his wounded forearm, and this time, the leaf stayed in place.

Hissing slightly in pain, Marko screwed his right hand into a fist. After a few minutes, the pain subsided to a level that Marko could handle, and he sighed in relief. Looking around, Marko spotted a small cave entrance that was hidden behind the trees. Shrugging his shoulders, Marko walked over to the cave to see if it was big enough for him to spend the night there: he still didn't want to go back to camp and explain what he was doing in the forest in the middle of the night. Shaking his head, Marko cautiously started to enter the cave, but stopped halfway in the entrance: it was pitch black; he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Stepping back out of the cave, Marko ripped a small but thick branch off a nearby tree, placed it on the floor, grabbed two stones that were in front of the entrance, ripped off his other sleeve from his left arm, wrapped it tightly around the branch, grabbed a stone in each hand and clashed the stones together, creating sparks and igniting the sleeve-covered branch in a bright orange colour, before dying down to a mild orange light.

Picking the torch up, Marko entered the cave, this time he was able to see what was in front of him. Swinging the torch around the darkened cave as he went, Marko saw that it was big enough for him to stay in for the night. Putting the torch in the centre of the cave, Marko exited the cave, and returned a few minutes later with a large armful of wood. After he had taken the torch off the floor, he placed the wood into an upside down cone shape and added the torch to the bottom of the pile, slowly setting the rest of the wood alight. Sitting down against the rocky wall, Marko just sat there, doing nothing but

Starring into the fiery orange heart of the fire. After a few minutes, Marko felt himself trying to get back to sleep. Deciding to give it another shot, Marko got as comfortable as he could on the cold, rough, rocky floor. Sighing deeply, Marko slowly closed his eyes, and found that he got back to sleep rather quickly.


	7. Returning Home

Chapter 7

Marko groaned quietly as he woke up from a dreamless sleep; thankfully, he hadn't had another flashback during his second try at sleeping. Looking at the cave entrance, and spotted that the sun had just managed to break through the sky and into the forest. Getting up and putting out the remaining parts of the fire with the dirt and ashes surrounding the fire, Marko stepped out of the cave and spotted that the sun was only about half visible with the rest of it hiding behind the sea. Suddenly, his eyes widened in realisation: _**the others will probably be getting up by now,**_ thought Marko, his hand running through his hair.

Shaking his head, he looked down at the leaf covered forearm, and decided that it was now or never to tell them what happened with his arm. Sighing, Marko exited the cave and started running as fast as he could through the forest, but at the same time, he moved with the stealth of a feline and as quietly as a mouse. After about a minutes' run, Marko broke through the tree line and arrived at their camp, and thankfully, he couldn't see anyone outside their tents. Moving stealthily across the sand, Marko made passed the two tents occupied by Fradokos and Hiccup, and stopped in front of tent occupied by Rachel. Thinking fast, Marko quickly lied down on the sand outside if Rachel's tent, and pretended to be asleep.

After a few minutes waiting, Marko heard tent flaps open behind him and acted as though he had just woken up. Once he had 'woken up', Marko opened his eyes to see Rachel looking down at him, a smile spread across her face. "Good morning, sleepy head," she said, offering a hand to Marko, which he accepted and got up onto his feet. Looking at the other tents, Marko was surprised to find that Fradokos and Hiccup weren't up already. "Probable stay up all night for some reason," said Rachel, as though she knew what Marko was thinking. Nodding in response to Rachel, Marko walked into Rachel's tent and picked up the water pouch and came back out again.

"So, think they'll be up by the time we get going for Molak?" asked Marko, opening the pouch cap and taking a swig of water. Shrugging her shoulders, Rachel replied, "Maybe, and if there not, we can always get them up." Smirking, Marko put the cap back on, but he unknowingly used his bitten arm to screw the cap on. Rachel spotted this and asked, "Marko, what happened to your sleeve? In fact, what happened to your arm?" Marko just stood there, not knowing what to say as Rachel grabbed his wounded arm and examined it. When she tried to take off the leaf bandage, Marko said, "Don't! Please, I'll tell you later." Looking up at Marko, Rachel wore a face that showed that she wanted to know now, but she decided to wait until Marko was ready to tell her.

Hearing tent flaps opening, Marko and Rachel turned around to find Fradokos and Hiccup exiting their tents, stretching their arms and legs and then walked over to Marko and Rachel. "So, when are we leaving?" asked Hiccup, accepting the water pouch Marko offered him and taking a sip. "We're leaving just as soon we've packed and the Dragons come back." Nodding, Hiccup handed the pouch to Fradokos, who accepted it and took a swig. Marko then said, "Right, then, let's get packed up and then I'll call the Dragons." Nodding, they all went to their tents and started to empty them before they started to take them down.

After about half an hour, the three tents had been taken down and packed into the leather bags. Once they had all been put into a big pile, Marko brought his thumb and first finger to his mouth, and whistled loudly, probably loud enough to be heard across the enough to be heard across the entire island. After about a minutes' wait, Marko spotted three white blobs and a single black blob high in the sky, before they angled themselves down and after a few seconds wait, Ice, White Light, Cloud and Toothless landed in front of their riders. Once the four riders had attached something to their Dragons saddles, they mounted the Dragons and were soon ready to go. "Alright, then. Let's go!" shouted Marko, and they soon high in the sky and above the sea. After half way through the trip, Rachel motioned for Cloud to get level with Marko and Ice. Once she had done so, Rachel asked, "So, how far do you think we are for home?" Looking over at Rachel, Marko answered, "about another few hours or so: not long now."

Nodding, the two were silent for a few minutes, before Rachel asked, "So, do you think you able to tell me what happened to you earlier?" Sighing, Marko told her nearly everything that happened last night, although he left out the part about his mother's medallion. So, when she asked why he was out there in the middle of the night, Marko answered, "I just wanted to clear my head for a bit, and that's how I ran into that wolf." At first, Marko wasn't sure if she'd believe it, but she nodded and didn't ask anything else on the subject, and Marko let out a silent sigh of relief.

After another few hours' silent flight, a large island came into view, but this wasn't like any island that Hiccup had seen before: this island was not covered in lush, green forests: it was covered entirely in a thick, blackened blanket. This island didn't have a visible village or inhabitants in sight. This was an island that Hiccup had never seen before, and it was one that he was hoping to never see again. When they landed on the ground, a small wave of smoke and ash flew up slightly before returning to a pile on the ground. Once Marko dismounted Ice, she whined in discomfort. _"Shh, it's alright Ice," _reassured Marko, stroking the White Fury's head, _"I don't want to be here either." _

Hiccup, confused, asked, "Um, Marko? What are we doing here? Do we need to get some supplies for here or something?" But Marko didn't answer: he just turned around and faced Hiccup, and the young Viking saw something he had never seen of Marko's face before: it was sadness. "This, Hiccup," said Marko, gesturing to the blackened island behind them, "is home." He paused for a second, before saying, "Welcome to Molak, home of the White Furies, Viking."


	8. The Traitor

Chapter 8

He was stunned. Shocked. Completely thrown away by those nine little words. Hiccup looked around, trying to get it through his head that this completely destroyed, utterly unrecognisable island, had once been the home to the most famous, and the most feared, tribe in history. Hiccup looked at Marko, and gasped, "How?" Looking at him coldly, Marko replied, icily, "You know how." True, Hiccup did know what had happened to Molak for it to become such a complete mess: Black Ash. But even Hiccup was left astonish to how a single person- _No, he's no person,_ thought Hiccup- a single _monster _had done all this. "B-b-but how can one...monster do all this?" asked Hiccup, throwing his arms into the air.

Scrunching his hands into fist, Marko asked through girt teeth, "That monster is capable of unspeakable things: what he did to Berk failed in comparison to what he did here." Looking around, Marko spotted something that Hiccup didn't know what was. Marko bent down, rubbed some of the ash off whatever it was that he was getting, and picked it up. Walking over to Marko, Hiccup asked, "Marko, what are yo-" but he cut off mid-sentence: he had just spotted what Marko had picked up. It was a skull: a light grey colour, but with darker areas where there had been ash and dirt covering it and a few teeth on the top jaw were missing. "Was it someone you knew?" asked Hiccup, placing a tentative hand on Marko's shoulder.

Sighing and shaking his head, Marko said, "This way, you can't tell who it was, but you can always know one thing: it was one of your brothers. We're all brothers and sisters on this island." After he said that, Marko gently rested the skull on the ground, muttering, "_Rest in Peace, brother or sister."_ Looking around, Marko walked deeper into the burnt village, with Hiccup and Rachel following him: Fradokos stayed behind with the Dragons. As they walked deeper into the remains of the village, Hiccup started to see more and more skeletons, both human ones and Dragon ones: some were lying in the path, looking as though they were trying to get away from whatever Black Ash used to kill them; others were sitting up against corners of the remains of houses, huddling with their families to spend their last minutes alive with the ones they love; and the Dragon skeletons were just sprawled out in random places, as though they had been killed during mid-flight. Hiccup looked around, but it was too much to take in a one moment: this wasn't genocide, this was a massacre.

Stopping, Marko gestured for Hiccup and Rachel to be quiet, and Hiccup soon understood why: he started to hear a flapping sound. "Wait here," whispered Marko, as he started to move stealthily towards the source of the sound. After Marko had moved out of sight, Rachel asked, "So, what do you think that was?" Looking at her, Hiccup answered, "I just hope that it's someone who somehow managed to survive this." Nodding, Rachel crossed her arms, and muttered, "This place gives me the creeps." Looking around, Hiccup understood what she meant: to come back to a place that was once your home, but was now a blackened mess; that was enough to freak anyone out.

"Hey, you two!" shouted Marko's voice somewhere off in the distance, to which Rachel and Hiccup jogged over to where the source was coming from. When they turned a corner, they spotted Marko, and that he had managed to find a living Dragon: this one was small enough to be a Terrible Terror, and it was covered in dark green scales with dark red horns covering his head. But the Terror had a fresh scar running through his right eye, leaving it covered in a grey mist, while the left eye had a red colour that was surrounded by the standard dark yellow colour of the rest of the eye.

"Sparks?" gasped Rachel, a shock smiled forming of her lips. Marko was smiling too: this was the first time in a long time that Hiccup had seen Marko have even the slightest hint of a smile. The Terror known as Sparks let out several grunts and a hiss at Marko, to which he returned three grunts, a long hiss, and another two grunts. The Terror then leapt off Marko and started to flap off even farther into the remains of Molak. "What did he say?" asked Hiccup, walking up to Marko. Marko turned around and said, "Sparks wants to show us something." Confused, the three friends chased Sparks, and as they did, they saw they were getting nearer and nearer to a giant cliff that loomed over Molak. _"Why are you taking us to the Caves, Sparks?"_ asked Marko, but the Terror didn't answer: he just kept flying towards the cliffs.

After another few minutes of following the Terror, they arrived at the giant cliff face. Looking up, Hiccup thought that it was about as high as Eagle Peak on Berk. But as his eyes fell closer to earth, Hiccup spotted that there was a large wooden door covering what appeared to be an entrance to a cave. What this, Marko?" asked Hiccup, placing his hand on the door. Looking up at the doors, Marko whispered, "The Elder Writings." Looking up, Hiccup spotting what Marko was looking at: a giant White Fury head had been painted on the door, with red eyes that look they were about a foot long, and the entire painting itself looked about nine feet tall. "How do we enter it?" asked Hiccup, trying temporarily to push the door open, but to no avail: he wasn't known for being the strongest Viking on his island.

Chuckling slightly, Marko walked over to the stone on the left side of the door, asking, "Who said anything about pushing it?" He then lifted a bulge of stone, revealing a level, which he grabbed and pulled down. An ominous groan came from the wooden doors as they slowly started to open. Once the doors had completely opened, Marko, Rachel and Hiccup slowly entered the ancient cavern, one of whom not knowing what to expect. But looking up at the walls, Hiccup spotted some form of writing on the walls, and it was in a language that was unfamiliar with. "Hey, what does this all say?" asked Hiccup, pointing at the writings. Turning around, Marko answered, "These are known as the Elder's Writings: they're a bunch of legends that were written by the Elders of our village. Like this one," he pointed at a rather long and large looking one, "is the legend of the Dragon King: it's a legend that tells of a human who saved an entire Dragon species from extinction, and the Dragons rewarded the human with powerful armour that had mystical powers."

But before Hiccup could ask what the 'powers' were inside that armour, a voice rang out through the caves: "OK, this is far enough for the four of us."


	9. Hello, Old Friend

Chapter 9

"What do you mean, 'the end of the four of us', Fradokos?" asked Marko, turning around to face the White Fury member at the entrance of the cave. Fradokos was standing directly in the middle of the entrance, an angered look plain as day on his face. "What I mean is that I'm through with spending my time with this bunch of cowards!" shouted Fradokos, walking into the cave and stopping less than an inch away from Marko. "I'm heading back to Berk: I'm joining Black Ash." At that moment, Hiccup and Rachel wore matching faces of shock, but Marko was wearing a face that was of mild surprise. "I told you the day we left Berk, and I'll tell you again: 'I do most things for a reason'."

Fradokos, who was now clenching his teeth, said, "Goodbye, _brother._" When he said 'brother', he spat it out like it was poisonous insect. After that, Fradokos walked away from the others and out of sight past the corner of the cave. Once they heard the flapping of wings, they knew that Fradokos had left, and that he was never coming back. After a few minutes staying rooted to the spot, Marko walked away from the entrance as though nothing had happened. "Marko, how can you be so calm after that?" asked Rachel, walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from going any farther into the cave. Looking up at the female, Marko said, "I knew it would only be a matter of time before this happened; that one of you ran off on me."

Before he could give Rachel a chance to reply, Marko pushed Rachel's hand off him and walked over to another writing, this one, opposite the one about the Dragon King. Looking up at it, Hiccup asked, "What's this one about, Marko?" Sighing, Marko looked up at it with weary eyes, and replied, "This is the one that tells about me and Black Ash. Most of it is just boring, that is, accept for the final part: _Neither can live while the other dies."_ Somehow, for some reason, Hiccup found it all familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had heard of it. Then, Marko walked away from Hiccup and down farther into the cave; farther into areas where the sunlight didn't reach.

"Marko, what are you doing?" asked Rachel, walking after Marko, who was now out of sight in the darkness. Hiccup, sighing in frustration, followed the other two. After a few moments of walking blindly in the dark, Hiccup bumped into something hard and smooth: Hiccup deducted that it must of been the end of the cave. Then, a light suddenly burst into the darkness, temporarily blinding Hiccup. Once his eyes had gotten use to the light, Hiccup saw that Marko had managed to light a torch using a contraption that looked like it worked by taking two stones, pulling a lever that quickly crashed the stones together, and lit a torch that was below the stones, instantly lighting the rag covered stick.

Looking up, Hiccup found that he hadn't bumped into a stone dead end, but he had bumped into what appeared to be a metal door, similar to the one that covered the entrance of the cave, although this one was made of metal, not wood. This door didn't have handles either, but there wasn't any sign of a lever or a bulge in the rocks that indicated there was a lever nearby on. Looking over at Marko, Hiccup asked, "How do you open this one, Marko?" Chuckling softly, Marko said, "You're currently full of questions today, aren't you, Haddock? And about the door, I think the last time it was opened was about fifty years ago: there is no known way of opening it."

Shaking his head, Hiccup walked back to the entrance of the cave, with Marko and Rachel following. Once they exited the cave, Cloud landed in front of them, growling in worry. _"What is it Cloud?" _asked Marko, curious of what would be able to scare a White Fury. Crooning, Cloud pointed her snout towards the cliffs that towered on the opposite side of the village to them. Looking up, Marko spotted a figure standing on top of the hills, looking down on them. But the figure must have spotted them, however, because it moved out of sight from Marko and the others, and ran away. "Marko, who do you think that wa-"asked Rachel, but she stopped midsentence when she saw Marko mounting Ice and, not a second later, unravelled her wings and flapped them, sending her and Marko up and towards the cliffs.

Once they had just reached the top of the cliff, Marko spotted the figure, running as fast as he could away from him. So, even though Ice was still in mid-flight, Marko stood up and jumped off Ice, performing a barrel role when he hit the ground. Standing up on the solid ground, Marko began running after the watcher. Even though the mysterious figure had a head start, Marko had had better training and could run much quicker, seeing as he had almost caught up with the figure. Now that he was closer to the figure, Marko could see some details: for one, the figure was wearing dirty white ceremonial robes that went down to his feet and had a hood covering his head, preventing Marko for seeing the person's face. Marko also noticed that the figure's left hand was missing, leaving only a stump.

_**There's only one person I know that has their hand missing**_, thought Marko, relaying the description of the figure through his memories, and finally figured out who it was. Eyes widened, Marko skidded to a stop, a small cloud of ash and small stones moving in the air before falling back down. Standing up properly, Marko shouted, "_Damak _stop! It's me, Marko!" The figure Marko shouted at skidded to a stop, and turned around: his face lower part of his face with covered in a thin brown beard, and he had a scar running the length of his forehead. Eyes widened, Damak asked, _"Marko? Is it truly you?"_ Smiling softly, Marko replied, _"Hello, old friend."_

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**Well, that's Chapter 9 up. But guys, if I don't get at least 8 reviews then I'm stopping the story. So, I'm gonna put a poll on to see wether or not you want me to continue.**

**Nf991**


	10. The 'Incident'

Chapter 10

Marko and Damak just stood there, not saying a thing, the only noise coming from a soft wind that had started to pick up. Finally, after a few minutes, Damak broke the silence, _"I-I cannot believe that it is truly you, Marko."_ To this, Marko smile stayed the same and he started to walk towards Damak. _"Believe me, Damak, this is real: I have returned home."_ Once Marko had said this, the two were a few feet apart. Now that he was closer, Marko could see some finer details on Damak's stump of a hand: it was a near perfect semi-circle where his wrist ended, and there was a thin scar running from side to side. _"Brother, what happened to your hand?"_ To this question, Damak stiffened quickly, before loosening again and whispering, _"The 'incident' happened, Brother."_ Upon the word 'incident', Marko knew what had happened...He had SEEN it happen...

_Three and a half weeks ago – Molak – Marko_

"Marko!" shouted a voice through the thickening black smoke, but Marko didn't pay any attention to it: he had to find the thing responsible for this. He needed to find him. Putting his sleeve over his mouth and nose, Marko started in the direction of a collection of screams. After a few minutes, with eyes burning and lungs gasping for clean air, Marko spotted a gap in the ash, and he saw him: Black Ash, swinging his swords at a group of men, and each of them falling to their deaths. With angry in his eyes, Marko started running towards the direction where he saw Black Ash, but the gap had moved now, so he had nothing but instinct and memory guiding him.

After a few mere seconds, Marko broke through the wall of smoke into a clearing. Looking around, he spotted Black Ash, surrounded by his dead brothers and sisters, and had a small child, no older than nine, choking to death in his right hand, and his bone handled sword in his right. _"Stop this, NOW!"_ shouted Marko, drawing his swords from sheathes on his back. Black Ash snapped his neck towards Marko, and chuckled darkly, then dropped the child, who gasped for breath and quickly ran away. **"You dare challenge me?"** questioned Black Ash, stepping closer to Marko, who was also walking towards Black Ash, his swords making a cross in front of him. When they met in the centre of the gap, they were nothing more than a few meet apart.

"_I challenge you,"_ said Marko, and swung his left sword directly at Black Ash's side, but was blocked by Black Ash's sword. Marko tried again, this time using his right sword and aiming it at Black Ash's side. But, yet again, Black Ash stopped the sword with his own, and pushed Marko's sword back and attack with a swing of his own, one which Marko was only just able to block. This fight went on for a long half an hour, before Marko lost his balance and fell over, causing his swords to be knocked away from him. When he went to reach for the sword on his right, Black Ash walked forward and put a foot purposely on Marko's forearm, causing Marko to let out a grunt of pain, for it was the forearm that had his black scales covering it.

"**You're pathetic," **muttered Black Ash, adding more pressure to Marko's forearm. But before either of them could do anything else, a large hammer came out of nowhere, hitting Black Ash square in the stomach, causing him to cry out in pain and fall back. _"Be gone, Demon!"_ shouted a voice, sounding as though it came from the same direction that Marko came from. Then, through the ash, a figure stepped forward: he was wearing white ceremonial robes that had black patches spread across the front, and he had a dagger in his left hand, and he had a look of anger in his eyes.

"_Damak, NO! You don't know what he's like!"_ shouted Marko, trying desperately to keep Damak away from Black Ash. But Damak wasn't listening: he was advancing towards Black Ash and trying to disarm him, though he was being unsuccessful, for Black Ash was putting up a good fight against this veteran fighter. Marko got up and tried to help his friend, but by the time he got there, Black Ash had gotten Damak in a head lock and held his sword to Damak's throat, adding enough pressure to let a single drop of blood seep out. **"Come any closer, and I slit his throat!"** said Black Ash, adding enough pressure to cause Damak to cry out in pain.

Breathing quickly, Marko was stuck on what to do: on one hand, Marko could let Black Ash kill Damak right in front of him, and let that image haunt him for the rest of his life; and on the other hand, he could surrender to Black Ash, and show the survivors how much of a coward he was. _**No, I'm not a coward!**_ thought Marko, tightening his grip on the two swords. After a few minutes stand-off, Marko sighed and said, _"Fine, you win,"_ and dropped his swords. Chuckling darkly, Black Ash lowered the sword from Damak's throat and let go of him. Cautiously, Damak walked towards Marko and safety. Then, in one foul swoop, Black Ash lifted his sword and brought it down on Damak's left wrist, slicing clean through the bone, and leaving it to fall to the ground, with blood dripping out of it.

Screaming in pain, Damak fell to his knees and clutched what remained of a once perfectly working and functional hand. With grinding teeth, Marko looked up at Black Ash, shouted, _"You MONSTER!"_ and picked up one of his sword, running towards Black Ash. But when he lifted the sword over his head to strike Black Ash down, Marko suddenly felt a stinging pain in his abdomen and gasped out. Looking down, he spotted an arrow head jabbed into his stomach and it was covered in blood. Looking up, Marko saw Black Ash looking at him with a smug smile on him face. He then walked forward until he was almost breathing on him, before saying, **"I will see you again, Marko, and next time, I WON'T return."** After he said that, he walked _into _Marko, his body turning transparent until he was in the exact same position as Marko, who was grunting in pain from both the arrow head and from Black Ash returning inside him.

Once the pain from Black Ash had subsided, the pain from the arrow started to throb. Looking around, Marko saw that the smoke was still thick, so there was enough time for him to get away before any of his brothers and sisters found out that it was his fault. Whistling for Ice, Marko looked around to make sure none of the people on the island saw him, but then his eyes landed on the unconscious form of Damak, a small pool of blood surrounding his wrist. Sighing, Marko shook his head and walked over to Ice, who had just landed and mounted her. He muttered, _"We have to leave for a while, Ice, and don't ask why." _Looking at her owner, Ice nodded and said nothing more on the subject. Once they were high up in the air, Marko thought about where he could lay low for a while, and then, it came to him. _"Berk,"_ muttered Marko, and he told Ice to change direction so they would arrive in Berk in about a week.

_Present – Marko_

Shaking his head, Marko tried to get the past out of his head. Looking up at Damak, Marko muttered, _"Just some bad memory..."_ before Damak could ask what's wrong. Nodding, Damak said, _"I noticed that you were not alone. I saw Rachel and Fradokos return, but then Fradokos left, why?" _Marko sighed, and replied, _"I'll tell you later."_ Nodding, Damak added, _"I also noticed that you brought a stranger onto sacred ground. I wish to see him." _Nodding, Marko walked towards the edge of the cliff, with Damak

Following him. As they walked, Marko was deep in thought. _**If Damak survived, did anyone else survive? Are we alone, or are there others?**_

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**Firstly, I'd like to thank those people who actually reviewed this story. Secondly, as long as I keep getting reviews, I will continue. **

**So, R&R.**

**Nf991**


	11. A Leap of Faith

Chapter 11

_Rachel and Hiccup_

As the two waited for Marko return from chasing the strange watcher, Hiccup asked, "So who do you think that was?" Looking at Hiccup, Rachel sighed and replied, "Hopefully it was one of our tribe, or someone who we know." Nodding, Hiccup stroked Spark's head, causing the Terror to purr in affection. Suddenly, Rachel shouted, "Look!" and pointed towards the sky. Coming towards them from the sky, was Ice, and she was carrying two people: one was Marko, and the other was someone Hiccup didn't recognise. When Ice landed, Marko and the stranger dismounted her and walked towards Hiccup and Rachel.

"Look who I found, Rachel," said Marko, gesturing to the person behind him. Looking at the figure, Rachel gasped and said, _"Damak, is that you?"_ Looking up when he name was called, Damak looked at Rachel, smiled and said, _"Rachel? Is that you?"_ Nodding, Rachel smiled and ran up to Damak and hugged him. Slightly taken aback by this, Damak awkwardly patted Rachel on the back with his one good hand. Looking at Hiccup, Damak asked, _"And who might you be, stranger?"_ Hiccup, who you wouldn't call fluent in Dragonese, just stood there awkwardly and waited for either Marko or Rachel to translate it for him. Seeing that Hiccup was waiting, Marko said, "Oh, yeah, Hiccup doesn't speak Dragonese. Damak asked you for your name."

Hiccup then told Damak his name, though he needed Marko to translate it for him. _" 'Racmonca'? The one who stopped the killing of Dragons on Berk?" _asked Damak, looking at Marko and Rachel to say if he was right or not. Marko nodded, and said, _"Since we're asking questions, Damak, I wish to ask you one." _Damak nodded, and Marko asked, _"Are there any others?"_ This question seemed to cause the entire island to go cold and be still. Everybody held their breath as seconds passed. Then, Damak looked Marko in the eye, and said, _"Follow me."_ And with that, Damak started towards the cliff that he and Marko had just come down from.

Looking at each other cautiously, they followed Damak towards the cliff. As they got closer to the cliff and farther away from the village, the Dragons took off towards the top of the cliff, probably to spend some time while the humans followed this one handed man. As the Dragons moved out of sight, Damak had led them towards a large hole in the ground, and, Hiccup thought, from looking down it, he guessed that it was about fifty feet down. There was a small waterfall that was a few feet about the hole, and the water fell down to the very bottom of the hole. Looking around, Hiccup picked up a small pebble and dropped it into the hole, where it fell and hit the water with a small _**plop**_.

"That's over fifty feet down," muttered Hiccup, trying to keep himself from throwing up: sure, when he was on Toothless, heights and him had no problem, but when he was on the ground, heights unleashed its darker side on him. As Hiccup tried to keep himself from hurling, Marko asked Damak, _"Why have you brought us here, Damak?"_ Damak smiled mysteriously, and said, _"The answer to your question lies in these waters."_ And with that, Damak started to tip over, back facing the hole, and he fell into the hole. _"DAMAK!"_ shouted Marko, falling to his knees and trying to grab Damak's arm or leg, but it was no use: Damak had fallen too far out of Marko's reach. The next moment, the three of them heard an almighty _**SPLASH!**_ Looking down the hole, the only thing Marko saw were several rings, each getting larger and eventually disappearing, in the water, and centring where Damak must have landed.

"I'm going in after him!" shouted Marko, taking off what was left of him hoodie, revealing several battle scars and a six pack. "Marko, you can't survive a fall like that!" shouted Rachel, her eyes momentarily lingering on his muscular stomach and ribs. "I don't care," said Marko, and he leapt into the hole, his arms spread out like an eagle, before he brought them into an upside down pencil position, and he then landed in the water, leaving several rings surrounding the spot where he landed, just like Damak. But after a few minutes wait, Marko failed to come back up. After a few more harrowing moments, Rachel said, "He's been down there too long! I've got to go in after them!" and she ran and jumped into the hole, and again, there was another _**splash**_! and again, there were several rings near where the other two had jumped.

Hiccup sighed, thinking, _and then there was one_, and he looked down the hole, waiting for at least one of them to resurface. After about ten minutes wait, neither of them surfaced, and Hiccup was starting to worry. Hiccup then sighed and said aloud, "Well, up until recently, I had a good life," and cautiously tip-toed towards the edge of the hole. Taking a deep breath, Hiccup closed his eyes and jumped straight into the hole. After a few seconds freefall, Hiccup felt the sudden coldness of the water run up his body. When his head went under the water, Hiccup tried to swim up the surface, but there seemed to be a force pulling him down, deeper into the water. After some of the longest minutes in Hiccups life, he started to feel himself spinning. After another few minutes of rolling and crashing into rocks, Hiccup suddenly felt himself being pushed upwards, and after a few seconds, Hiccup's head crashed through the water surface and he gasped for much needed air.

After he climbed out of the water, shivering slightly, Hiccup brushed his head out of his head and saw something that made him smile: Damak, Rachel and Marko, all dripping wet and looking at him. Marko offered him a hand and Hiccup accepted, pulling him to his feet. Looking around, Hiccup saw that they were in some sort of underground cave: there was a hole in the ground were Hiccup came up from, and the entire room was lit by several torches spread across the walls. "What was that?" asked Hiccup, taking off his brown over vest and wringed it out, causing a load of water to be squeezed out. "That was called 'A Leap of Fate', Hiccup: it means when someone jumps without knowing what will happen when they land. In this case, I or Rachel didn't know what would happen when we landed, we were just concentrated on saving Damak or me."

"_Follow me," _said Damak, and walked into a small tunnel that led into darkness. Grabbing a torch from the wall, Marko followed, and then Rachel followed him, leaving Hiccup at the end. After about fifteen minutes walk, they arrived at a weathered wooden door: most of the wood looked old and rotten, and the hinges on the right of the door looked rusty; this door had not been used in a long time. Damak, using his one good hand, knocked on the door three times, then clawed the door with his fingers, and then knocked twice. A few seconds later, a small hatch slid open, revealing a pair of eyes that were the lightest brown Hiccup had ever seen. After a few seconds looking at them, the hatch slid shut and the door opened, revealing a large, circular chamber: there was a wooden table in the centre, which was surrounded by several chairs; and the walls were covered in strange, red writings, like the ones in the Elder's Writings cave.

"_Say hello to what's left of the Elders," _said Damak, gesturing to three people who had just come out of the shadows.


	12. Become One of Us

Chapter 12

Marko immediately fell to his knees in a sign of respect, with him kneeing on his left knee and his right foot on the floor, and with his right arm crossing his right knee. Looking at each other, Rachel, and Hiccup, feeling awkwardly, copied Marko's sign of respect. Looking up, Marko looked at the figure that stood in the centre of the three figures, and said, _"Elder Natia, it is an honour to know that you survived."_ The centre figure lowered their hood, revealing a woman's face, about sixty, maybe sixty five. She had misty green eyes that made her look mysterious, but at the same time, she looked as though she wanted to help. _"It is good to know that you are alive as well, Mystery,"_ croaked Elder Natia, and she looked at Rachel, and said, _"And it is also good that survived, Rachel,"_ and Rachel blushed: she was not used to talking to the Elders of the tribe.

"_And who might this, Mystery?" _asked the Elder of the right of Natia, pointing a withered finger at Hiccup, who looked around awkwardly. _"His name is Hiccup, and he is the only person to get off the island of Berk alive."_ The Elder on the right of Natia lowered their hood, and revealed the pair of light brown eyes that Hiccup saw through the hatch. It was also a man, and his face was covered in scars: some of them were only a few centimetres long, others ran the entire length of his forehead. _"Santaca, you are the one who knows the ways of a map best: where is this... 'Berk'?"_ Turning around, Santaca walked towards the table and started looking through a pile of scrolls that covered a small section of wood. After a few minutes of muttering and running fingers down the paper, Santaca said, _"Here it is,"_ and gestured for the Elders and Damak to come over to him, leaving Rachel, Hiccup and Marko to talk to each other.

"Who are they?" asked Hiccup, eyeing the Elders suspiciously. "They are the Elders of our tribe, well, at least what's left of them," said Marko, looking around at the cave like it was a home. "The one in the centre of the three is Natia: she's the highest ranking Elder here, and since I don't think that any more of the Elders survived, I'm guessing that she's in charge now. The other one is Santaca; he's the person on the island to go to if you're travelling and need help. The third one," said Marko, pausing to catch a breath, "I think is Elder _Matacu_, and he was the last Elder to be awarded as Elder before what happened here." Looking at the Elders and Damak, Hiccup started to wonder how many Elders there might have been before Black Ash destroyed the island. _"What happened to their island?"_ asked Natia, walking up to Marko and motioning for him to follow her.

"_It was him,"_ explained Marko plainly, walking towards the small group of Elders and Damak. _"That demon has caused more destruction and death than we allowed!"_ shouted the third hooded Elder, smashing his fist against the wooden table, causing Hiccup to jump, as he was not expecting it. The others expected it though, as they could understand Dragonese. _"So, what's the plan of attack?"_ asked Marko, looking at the others, hoping for an answer. But they just looked at him in confusion and pity, until Natia said, _"What is the point of us trying to kill him? He killed all of our best warriors! If an entire island can't kill one person, what chances do three Elders, three younglings, and a Viking have?" _Marko corrected, _"Four."_ Natia looked confused, and said, _"What?" _Marko looked up at her with the slightest hint of anger in his eyes, and repeated, _"Four. There are four younglings." _ Looking at Marko with confusion, Santaca asked, _"Who is the fourth one?"_ Marko sighed, and spoke in a way as though he was talking about a dead brother, _"Fradokos. Fradokos survived as well."_

Natia eyes widened, and she asked, _"Where is he now?"_ Taking a deep breath, Marko screwed his hands into fists, and whispered, _"If I'm correct, then he should be about halfway back to Berk, about to join Black Ash."_ A deadly silence took over the chamber, a silence that was thick; you could hear an earthquake that was on an island ten miles away. Then, in anger, Matacu pushed several of the maps off the table and onto the floor, causing some of them to rip slightly. _"That traitor!" _Matacu shouted, pulling down his hood, revealing a single right eye that was coloured, strangely in Hiccup's thoughts, in a Dragon-like yellow. The other eye was covered in a brown leather eye patch. The rest of the face was relatively non-scared: there was only a thin black beard that covered his entire lower jaw and ran up to his sides. _"So, what do you think we should do, now that you've heard that?"_ asked Marko, standing back from the table and lent against the wall of the chamber.

"_Alright then, what do you suppose we do?"_ asked Santaca, folding his arms and looking annoyingly at Marko. Marko smiled mysteriously at the Elders, and whispered something that Hiccup couldn't hear to the Elders. After a few seconds of whispering, Natia, Santaca and Matacu's eyes widened, and they broke out into a series of angry and worried mutters in Dragonese. Hiccup, who was one of the curious type, asked Rachel, "What are they talking about?" Rachel looked at him, and, for some reason, she looked afraid. "Trust me, you don't want to know," said Rachel, trying her best to avoid Hiccup's eye. After a few seconds of silence between the two, Marko walked up to Hiccup, knelt down and said, "Hiccup, I have a something to ask you." Before Hiccup could respond, Marko continued, "I have an idea that, I think will help your island, and your people."

"That's great, what is it?" asked Hiccup, both eager and confused. Marko sighed, and said, "Become one of us. Become a White Fury."


	13. Training and Future Father

Chapter 13

"WHAT!?" shouted Hiccup, getting up and looking at Marko as if he had just asked him to jump off a cliff. "I said that you would have to become a White Fury to help save you tribe," repeated Marko, knowing full well that it was going to take a while to convince Hiccup to try and become one of them. Hiccup put his hands over his face and tried to think of a reason, an excuses why he should become one of them. "Look at me!" Hiccup explained, gesturing to himself, "how can you turn someone like this into a warrior?" Marko responded, "Give me time, I'll train you." Hiccup sighed and put his hands behind his head, and started pacing around the room. "W-Well, why me?" asked Hiccup looking at Marko, desperate for answers.

"You've spent your entire life on that island: you're the only one out of all of us that know the island best. With your knowledge of the island, combined with the strength and weapons of our tribe, you'll be able to help save them," said Marko, grabbing Hiccup's arms and gentle shaking him, to help try and get the message through. The two of them took several deep breaths, while subconsciously trying to convince the other that this was a good/bad idea. After a few moments of silence, Marko let go of Hiccup and walked towards the maps that remained on the table. He then sat down on the nearest chair and looked through the maps, and stopped when he came to a rather old looking one and looked up to Santaca, and asked, _"How long would it take for us to get to Berk, if we left in a week?"_

Sighing, Santaca looked at Marko, and said, _"About five days."_ Sighing, Marko picked up the map, folded it up and walked up to Hiccup, stopped and said, "Follow me," and continued walking down the tunnel. Looking at the others, Hiccup shrugged his shoulders and followed Marko down the dimly lit tunnel. After a few minutes' walk, they arrived at the hole filled with water that they surfaced from. "Follow me," repeated Marko, and walked past the hole and into the darkness that surrounded the hole. Curious, Hiccup followed him and found him in front of a door shaped hole in the side of the wall that was covered in vines and leafs that nearly completely covered it. Moving the leafs to one side, Marko walked through it, with Hiccup quickly following. Looking around, Marko spotted that they were just where they wanted to be. Looking around, Hiccup saw that Marko was looking at something in front of him, and he copied his gaze, and he saw something that confused him.

There, plain as day in front of them was a giant hollowed out cave, and it continued on as far as he could see, and it was lit by several hundred torches. In the centre of it, there was a load of different training equipment; some was made of wood, others were part stone and part wood; and some of them just looked weird and like torture equipment. Looking at Hiccup, Marko explained, "This is where you'll train to become one of us. Each day, from dawn until dust, you will train. And I will help you." Hiccup, who was taking quickened breaths, put his hand over his face and said, "I haven't even agreed that I would do this yet!" Marko shook his head, and said, "I know you'll do it, Hiccup. For one reason, and one reason only." Hiccup, now annoyed that Marko was pestering him, asked, "What?" Marko sighed, and said, "Because I've seen Astrid, and she's alive."

Time seemed to stop for Hiccup when Marko said those last few words. _Astrid...alive,_ Hiccup repeated over and over again in his mind. After a few minutes of silence and pacing around, Hiccup stopped and said, "OK, I'm in." Smiling, Marko led Hiccup down to the exercise chamber, and towards a set of weights, but the second he tried to lift them, he knew instantly that he would never be able to even lift it even an inch off the ground. "Don't give up on your first try," reassured Marko, walking up to Hiccup and patting his back, "This entire chamber is filled with a gem that, for some strange reason, we came across so years ago, and we found that it enhances the human body, making it easier for someone to do tasks, like trying to lift something. Now try again."

_Ice and Toothless – Cliff_

As Hiccup tried to lift up the weight again, Ice, Toothless and Cloud were sitting around a large pile of fish that Toothless had brought for them. Ice, for some strange reason, was eating a lot more fish than either Cloud or Toothless; so much in fact, that Cloud took another trip out to sea to bring back more fish. Yet again, Ice ate more than twice the amount of Toothless or Cloud. _"Wow, I never knew you could eat so much fish, Ice,"_ said Toothless, to which Ice looked up at him, and said, _"Well, for some reason, I've been feeling hungrier than usual recently. I've tried to think about what it is, but I can't think what it is." _ Nodding, Toothless went back to what was left of the pile of fish. Cloud, however, go up and gestured for Ice to follow her.

Looking curious, Ice got up and followed her friend to behind a large rock that was about twenty-odd feet away from Toothless. _"Ice, as one girl to another, how long has it been since you've started feeling hungrier?" _asked Cloud, an idea forming in her head for Ice's appetite. Thinking back, Ice replied, _"About three weeks." _ Eyes widening, Cloud replied, _"Ice, do you know how long it takes for a youngling to form?"_ Ice, curious from the supposed change of subject, answered, _"About two weeks."_ Smiling softly, Cloud said, _"Ice, I think you'd better tell Toothless."_ Ice asked, _"What does this have to do with Toothless?"_

Cloud replied, _"He is the father, is he not?"_


	14. Holding It Off and 'One Step Closer'

Chapter 14

"_F-F-F-Father?!"_ spluttered Ice, trying to figure out if Cloud meant what she thought she meant. _"Yes,"_ said Cloud, still smiling, _"you and Shadow Fly are going to be parents."_ Taking quickened breaths, Ice looked around, trying to clear her head of what had just happened. _"H-How am I going to tell Toothless?" _ Cloud sighed, and said, _"I'm sorry, but that's something that only you can decide. That, and WHEN you tell him."_ Sighing, Ice nodded and walked back to where Toothless was, quickly followed by Cloud. When Toothless looked up, he saw Ice and Cloud walking towards him: Ice, wearing an expression of worry and wasn't meeting his eye, and Cloud, who wore a small smile.

"_So what did you two talk about?"_ asked Toothless, helping himself to another cod and swallowing it whole. Ice thought nervously for a moment, and muttered, _"Just girl stuff."_ Nodding, Toothless didn't push any more on the subject. Ice mentally sighed, and looked over at Cloud, who looked at her as if to say _'how long are you going to keep this up?' _look. Ice, again, mentally sighed and looked at her trying to say _'I don't know'. _For a few minutes, there was an awkward silence, until Cloud said, _"I still can't believe that White Light just went along with Fradokos so easily."_ Toothless replied, _"Fradokos has spent a lot of time with White Light: he naturally follows him."_ Nodding, Cloud muttered, _"I still can't believe it..."_

Sighing and shaking his head, Toothless asked, _"So, where do you think Hiccup and Mystery have gone?"_ Ice thought back to when their riders had entered the waterfall, and said, _"I believe that they've gone to the Elders for help."_ Toothless looked confused, and asked, _"The Elders?"_ Ice softly smiled at his confusion, and answered, _"The Elders, or what's left of them, were the ones who were in charge of the village before Black Ash destroyed it."_ Nodding, Toothless silently growl at the mention of that demons name: the person who had brought so much pain and death to two islands...ONE person! Toothless train of thought was interrupted by a voice shouting, _"Ice!"_ and Ice instantly took off and over the cliff, and moments later, she came back, this time, carrying Marko on her back, shirtless and slightly drenched.

"_Long time, no see, old friends,"_ greeted Marko, walking up to each of the Dragons and stroking their heads, causing each of them to purr. _"Where is Hiccup?"_ asked Toothless, looking at his with many a question swarming around in his mind. _"Last I saw him, I was saving him from being crushed by a hundred pound set of weights,"_ answered Marko, looking through the pile of fish, hoping by some miracle that there was a cooked one. Toothless looked at him with confused, and Marko said, _"I'm training him into one of us."_ At that sentence Toothless, Ice, and Clouds eyes widened in shock and even deeper confusion. Marko looked at their faces, and asked, _"What?"_ When none of them answered, Marko just shook his head and said, _"Look, sooner or later, we're going to launch an attack on Berk, and we need Hiccup to be in perfect physical condition if we're are going to be successful in doing this."_

At this short speech, Toothless said,_ "What? How can we be ready for such an attack? We are only three Dragons, two White Fury tribe members and a Viking! How can we destroy him?"_ Marko looked at him with slight disgust, and said, _"You are Shadow Fly, the Red Death's most trusted and trained solider! And you're scared of a single mortal?" _Toothless, his teeth showing and growling at an increasing volume, screeched, _"NO! I am a Night Fury! The unholy offspring of lightning and DEATH! I am not scared!"_ Marko didn't even change his expression, and said, _"Good, we're leaving in under a week."_ Ice, Toothless and Cloud opened their mouths to respond to this shocking revelation, but soon closed their mouths again. _"Good,"_ Marko said, smiling, _"now that there aren't any complaints, I need to keep an eye on __Hiccup. Ice, would you?"_

On instinct, Ice got up and let Marko mount her, before taking off and over the cliff. When she came back up, Marko wasn't on her back. When she sat down, a silence over took them as they ate the last of the fish. After a few minutes, Cloud cleared her throat, and said, _"Ice, isn't there something that you want to tell Toothless?"_ Ice, eyes widened from what Cloud said, quickly thought and said, _"Uh, um, yeah, thanks for the fish, Toothless."_ Toothless, looking at her strangely, said, _"Um...your welcome."_ Cloud looked at Ice, and mouthed, _"Better sooner than never."_ Ice sighed and mouthed, _"Don't rush me."_ After another few minutes, all the fish had been eaten and they just sat there, taking in the darkening sky.

"_Come on; let's find somewhere to sleep,"_ said Ice, to which Toothless and Cloud nodded and took off after her. Ice led them to a darkened cave that was on top of the cliff that had the Elder's Writings underneath. Looking around, Toothless noticed that it was easily big enough to fit at least another fifty large Dragons. _"Is this where the other Dragons sleep before...it...happened?"_ asked Toothless, looking at Ice or Cloud for an answer. Cloud said, _"Yes, this is where we and the other Dragons used to spend the night when they were not out hunting."_ Nodding, Toothless spotted a spot on the ceiling of the cave when he could hang himself from. So, flapping his wings, Toothless hooked his tail in the hole in the wall and let himself gently swing down until he was upside down. Ice and Cloud swiftly followed his example. Soon, the three Dragons were asleep, and as Hiccup and Marko trained, the Elders started to think of an attack strategy.

_Berk – Black Ash_

"Sir, you should come see this!" shouted a Viking, gesturing for Black Ash to follow him down the mine. Black Ash, curiosity evident in his blood red eyes, walked past the Viking and down the ladder that went down into the mine. Once they had nearly reached the bottom, Black Ash jumped the last few steps and landed in a small puddle that had formed from the recent rain. Looking around, Black Ash noticed that all the villagers of the 'old tribe', as it is now know as, weren't in there mining. **"Are they all back in their cells?"** asked Black Ash, turning to face the Viking, who nodded. Smiling in an evil manner, Black Ash turned around and walked into the deeper parts of the mine. After a few minutes' walk, the tunnel ended and Black Ash saw something pointing out of the stone and dirt mixture.

It looked like a golden triangle, though one side of it was longer than the others. There was also a thin silver curved like going from one side of the triangle to the other. Looking at it with curiosity, Black Ash grabbed it and gently pulled it out. Once it was completely out of the wall, Black Ash brushed off some of the dirt, revealing two small green gems, one in the middle of the triangle, and one at the edge of it. Black Ash smiled insanely, and turned around to face the Viking, and said, **"Looks like I'm one step closer."** The Viking took a step closer to Black Ash, and said, "Don't you mean 'we'?" Black Ash looked the Viking straight in the eye, and said, **"Of course, that's what I meant..."**


	15. Another Week Later

Chapter 15

_One week later_

It had been over a week since Hiccup had started training, and judging by his new appearance, there must have been something inside the cave walls like Marko said. His arms had gotten more muscular than he had ever seen them; his stomach had become toned and a barely visible six pack was formed ("Hey, there gems, not miracle workers!" Marko had said); and his wounds he got when he left Berk had completely healed. Rachel had also made a new shirt for Marko from some cloth she had found in an underground hatch in one of the ruins: his shirt had shoulder pads that looked like an arrow on each side, and it had two strips of leather running down from his chest on his front and back, and they both ran down to almost belt-level. Rachel had also managed to sew a hood onto the top of the Samurai-looking shirt, something Marko thanked her greatly for.

As Hiccup was lifting the same he first started at the start of the week with ease, Marko walked in, looked at Hiccup with a hint of pride in his eyes, and said, "You've come a long way, Haddock." Hiccup, surprised by the sudden voice, yelped and his arms went weak and he dropped the weight, one of the ends falling on his one foot. Chuckling and shaking his head, Marko said, "Well, you've come somewhat of a way, Haddock," and rushed up to Hiccup and lifted the weight off him. Hiccup, groaning in pain and massaging his foot, thanked Marko and took in his new top. "When'd you get the new look?" he asked, a smirk playing across his face. Marko looked at him with confusion, and asked, "What? Rachel made this for me." He instinctively brushed some non-existent dirt off one of the front flaps.

Hiccup chuckled, and said, "Sure, sure," and wiped some sweat that had formed on his forehead. Marko suddenly took on a serious look that didn't suit him, and said, "The Elders wish to see you: it's about the attack on Berk." Hiccup immediately tensed up when Marko said that: he had heard them muttering about the cliffs surrounding Berk as a way of doing something, but he had always moved out of ear shot by that point. Hiccup sighed, and asked, "When?" Marko looked at his bare wrist for a second, and said, "Now." Hiccup sighed, stood up and followed Marko towards the Elder's chamber. After a few minutes' walk, they arrived to an open door and Santaca looking over the maps he had that covered Berk; the same thing he had been doing all week. Looking up, he spotted Hiccup and Marko at the entrance and gestured for them to enter. _"I need you to look over this map and tell me where the best place to land on Berk without causing suspicion." _asked Santaca, but Hiccup looked at him with a confused look. "He asked where on Berk would be the best place to land without alerting them," explained Marko, guiding Hiccup towards the maps.

Looking over the mass of lines drawn onto the paper, Hiccup said, "Well, we can't come from the south: that's where the docks are, and we'll be easily spotted before we even come close to Berk. The only option I see is we go around to the north, using the clouds as cover, and land somewhere in the northern forests." Marko then explained what Hiccup had just said into Dragonese for Santaca. Nodding, Santaca muttered something else in Dragonese, which Marko translated as, "What should we do if there is no cloud on that day?" Hiccup thought for a moment, and said, "We'll just fly high up in the sky. As long as we stay directly in the way of the sun, we shouldn't be spotted." Seeming satisfied, Santaca started muttering in Dragonese again and scribbled arrows onto the map, as to show what Marko, Rachel and Hiccup were going to do on the day of the attack: the Elders, because of their age, chose not to come with them.

Marko and Hiccup walked around the table and sat on two of the unoccupied chairs. "So, looking forward to the attack?" asked Marko, pulling up his hood and looking at Hiccup. Hiccup sighed, and said, "The Berk I knew is long since gone, and even if this attack pulls off, it'll never been the same." Marko, looking down on his friend sighed and smiled, before saying, "Hey, cheer up, I got you a present." Curious, Hiccup looked up to find that Marko pulling out something from underneath the table, before setting it down on the wooden surface: whatever it was, it was wrapped tightly in leather. "Do you remember first thing you got when I returned?" asked Marko, undoing the vines on either end of the long object. Hiccup thought hard, and said, "The sword." Smiling, Marko unrolled the leather from around the object, revealing a sparkling silver glow.

Hiccup looked down on his sword in awe, and mouthed, "How?" Marko chuckled, before saying, "Well, trust me, it wasn't a walk in the park. I had to sneak into Berk, unnoticed, and search through a pile of stuff that Black Ash had ordered to be thrown into the ocean. I was just quick enough to find the sword and escape without them knowing." Hiccup shook his head, and gently picked up the sword, either hand at each end of the sword. He ran his hands over the custom bronze Fury head that ended at the top of the handle and started at the base of the metal sword. Hiccup chuckled slightly, and said, "You really put effort into this, didn't ya?" Marko smiled, and nodded. Just then, Rachel walked in, carrying a pouch of water around her shoulder and sat down next to Marko. "Just finished packing the Dragons: we should be ready to go by midday." Marko sighed, and nodded in understanding. Marko, Rachel and Hiccup got up, but then Natia walked in and said, _"I wish to speak to Marko a moment. The other two have to go."_ Looking confused, Marko said, "Meet me at the village, and if I'm not there in five minutes, go without me."

Rachel said, "But Marko, we need you if we're going to pull this off!" But Marko ignored her, and walked towards Natia. Hiccup placed his hand on Rachel's shoulder, and said, "Come on, Rachel, let's go." Reluctantly, Rachel and Hiccup walked off and out of the chamber. When they were out of sight and ear shot, Marko looked at Natia, and asked, _"What is this about?"_ Natia looked down at Marko, and said, _"It is time to unleash the Dragon King."_


	16. The Dragon King

Chapter 16

_Marko_

"_But how can we unleash the Dragon King? The armour has been lost for hundreds of years_!" said Marko as he followed Natia down the tunnel that came out from the Elder chamber and into the room where the water hole was. Natia then walked past the hole, and through a gap in the water that was next to the one that led to the caves where Hiccup trained. _"Follow me," _she said, and walked through the gap and out of sight. Marko followed, and found that they had returned to the outdoors. Looking around, Marko spotted the wooden door that had been left open when Fradokos had done a runner. _"Where are you going?"_ asked Marko, but Natia didn't answer: she just continued walking out into the ruins of Molak and towards the opposite cliff.

Looking around, Marko couldn't spot Rachel or Hiccup in the village. _"It will take them a few minutes to get here the way they took,"_ said Natia, as though she knew what Marko was thinking. After a few minutes more walk, they arrived at the wooden door and they walked through deeper into the darkness, until they arrived at the metal doors at the end of the cave. _"OK, answer me this: how are we going to open this door?"_ asked Marko, leaning on the metal surface on the door is question. Natia looked at him with eyes of stone, and said, _"The key has always been near you, Mystery; all it takes is a little bit of looking."_ Marko looked at her for a moment, and then shook his head in confusion. Then, all of a sudden, he felt a small pulling in his chest. Looking down, he spotted there was something trying to get out of his shirt.

Putting his hand down his shirt, he pulled out his medallion, which looked normal, but when he let go of it, it strangely started to be pulled towards the door, as though there was a magnetic connection between the door and the medallion. Looking curiously at Natia, Marko walked closer to the door, letting the medallion guide him to whatever needed to be done to open the door. After a few seconds, Marko ended up on the left hand side of the door, where the string connection the medallion to Marko's neck was also completely straight. Gently, Marko slipped the string off from around his neck, and when he let go of it, it flew forward and connected to one of the rocks that was right next to the door. Stunned, Marko walked towards the rock and tried to pull the medallion off, but found it difficult. Looking at Natia, Marko silently questioned her on what he needed to do. Natia gestured for him to look at the rock where the circular piece of metal was connected to.

Looking at her with confusion, Marko placed his hand over the rock that the medallion was stuck to, and felt something unusual: he felt the rock moving upwards. Taking his hand away, Marko watch as the rock slowly moved up, revealing a hole plate underneath it, and it had a small hole in it big enough for the medallion to fit in. Looking stunned, Marko looked at Natia, and she said, _"Your mother knew about the armour long before you were born: so she and I created the medallion as the only means to us the armour as a last resort."_ Marko then tried pulling the medallion off the wall, but this time, it came off. Then, taking a deep breath, Marko slowly placed the medallion in the small hole in the metal. And, with one final push, the medallion fit in perfectly inside the metal circle. A few seconds later, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, the doors split into two, and slowly, they started to open. Standing back, Marko and Natia watched as the door opened completely.

Once they had stopped moving, they looked into the room that was behind the metal door, and what they saw, shocked and awed them.

The walls of the room were completely smoothed, as though they had been sanded down every day. And in the centre of the room, there was a stone block which had Furies carved into the sides. And on top of the block, there was a chest plate, which was mainly black with silver streaks running from the centre to the shoulders, sides and back. There was also ruby's that were dotted across the entire chest plate. There was also a pair of black Vambraces that lay in front of the chest plate, and they too had silver streaks running the full length of the black metal. And, taking up a second, slightly taller stone block that stood behind the one with the chest plate and Vambraces, was the centre piece of the entire room: a helmet, which was just like the rest of the set, black background with silver streaks running from the top to the bottom, but the most shocking thing was that, on the top of the helmet, was the image of a Dragon: it LOOKED like a relative of the Fury, but Marko couldn't be sure.

"_It is time: put it on,"_ said Natia, leading Marko to the set of armour. Marko looking shocked at Natia sudden decision, said, _"I can't put this on! This belongs to the Tribe! I can't just take it and put it on!"_ But Natia grabbed his arms and pinned them to his sides, and said, _"You must! It is destiny!"_ She then gestured to a bunch of words written on the walls behind the armour, like the ones in the Elder's Writings cave. Looking up at them, Marko red them out aloud:

"'_Demons run when a Dragon goes to War,  
Fire will rise and kill the wicked,  
When a Dragon goes to War.  
Friendship dies and True Love lies,  
When a Dragon goes to War.  
Demons run, but count the costs;  
The Battle is won but the Hero is lost.  
When a Dragon goes to War."_

Once Marko had finished the writing, or more of a poem, he sighed and looked down at the floor: he knew what he needed to be done, and what would happen when he did. Natia said, _"You know what needs to be done?"_ At this, Marko turned around to face her, and looked up at her, and said firmly,_ "I'm ready."_

* * *

**Ok, I know: the 'Demons Run' poem belongs to the BBC's 'Doctor Who.'**

**Please R&R **

**Nf991**


	17. It's Time and The Eyes have It

Chapter 17

_Rachel and Hiccup_

Hiccup and Rachel had been waiting for Marko for about fifteen minutes now, withal the Dragons packed and their weapons ready, but he was nowhere in sight. "What's taking him so long?" asked Rachel, looking all around her, as though Marko was going to come towards them in any direction. Hiccup sighed, and shook his head, and said, "Look, we've been waiting for about fifteen minutes, and Marko told us to go if he isn't with us in five minutes. So, come on, let's go." But Rachel wouldn't let Cloud budge. "NO! We just need to give him another few minutes, and then he'll be here!" Hiccup sighed, and said, "Look, do have something on Marko or something?!" And when those words left his mouth, Rachel screamed out, "YES!"

There was a silence that followed her scream; a silence that was deafening. After another few minutes of silence, Rachel whispered, "Yes." And after another minute silence, Hiccup said, "Come on, we're going." And he then motioned Toothless to take off, to which Rachel reluctantly followed, but not before saying to Ice, _"Please, don't leave if you don't have Marko."_ Ice nodded, and Rachel then took off. When they disappeared behind the clouds, Ice curled up into a ball and waited for Marko to return. But then, suddenly, she felt an unbearable pain coming from her stomach. Closing her eyes in pain, Ice tried to think what was causing the pain. Then, it came to her: it was time. _**No, no, it can't be time yet.**_ But even she couldn't look away from the fact that she was giving birth, now. Looking around, she spotted the cave where the Dragons had spent the past few nights. Standing up, she just managed to fly up to the caves, and so, the process began...

_Marko_

As the others left and Ice entered the cave, Marko was preparing to put the armour on. Taking a deep breath, he walked forward and picked up the right-forearm vambrace and slowly undid the leather string that held it together. Once it was completely undone, Marko wrapped it around his right forearm and re-did the strings. Once it was done up, Marko felt a sudden surge of strange energy powering through his body, coming from the vambrace. He then undid the other vambrace and slipped in on his other forearm. Again, a surge of energy came from the vambrace and through his body. Looking down at his arms, he flexed his arms as to feel if it was comfortable or not. Looking at the chest plate, he picked it up and undid the left side slipped his hand through the one arm hole and folded it over his chest, and re-did the left side. Again, another, much stronger surge of power ran through his body, and centre to his eyes, but he shook it off.

Turning around, Marko looked at the final piece of armour: the helmet. Walking past the first block, Marko picked up the helmet and, after lowering his hood, he placed it onto his head. Once he had done up the bottom of the helmet under his chin, it happened. He felt a sudden pain powering into his eyes, making him fall to his knees in pain. After a few minutes, Marko felt the pain subsided enough for him to bare it. Standing up again, Marko felt something was...different: he couldn't put his finger on it, but somehow, he felt more...powerful. It may have been just the armour and the legend playing tricks on his mind, but Marko didn't think so. Walking shakily, Marko exited the cave, and found a puddle that had recently formed. And when he looked into the puddle, it would become a turning point in his life.

There, looking back up at him, Marko saw himself in the armour, which seemed to fit him perfectly. But that wasn't the think that shocked him; what shocked him was his eyes. Instead of a pair of icy blue eyes looking back at him, a pair of forest green ones were looking back. Taking aback, Marko stood up fully and walked into the ruins. But when he got there, he couldn't see Rachel, Ice, Natia, Hiccup OR Cloud anywhere. _**How am I going to get to Berk?**_ Marko thought to himself, sitting down on what was left of a once grand house. _"Is something wrong, Brother?"_ asked a voice behind Marko. Startled, Marko stood up and turned around, pulling his sword out of its sheath on his left side as he did. But when he turned around completely, he found it to be Damak, a surprised look on his face. _"Oh, Damak: I did not realise that it was you,"_ said Marko, putting his sword back in the sheath. Shaking his head, Damak asked, _"Why are you not on your way to Berk?"_ Marko shrugged, and said, "_I do not know where Ice is, nor where Hiccup and Rachel are."_

Damak muttered, _"Hmm,"_ and started pacing, thinking about this dilemma. Then, he looked back at Marko and said, "_You may use my Dragon."_ Startled, Marko asked, _"You mean Spitfire is still alive?"_ Damak nodded, and bringing his good hand to his face, let out a shrilling whistle. Moments later, a large, burnt orange blur passed over the sky, and landed next to Damak: it was a Monstrous Nightmare; it had burnt orange scales covering its entire body, with black scales covering its back, which made it look like a massive tiger. One of its horns that came out of the back of his skull was broken in half. _"How many others actually managed to get off the island before it was burnt to a cinder?"_ asked Marko, walking up to Spitfire and placing his hand onto his snout, to which the Nightmare growled contently. Damak smiled mysteriously, as though he knew something Marko didn't.

Turning around, Damak looked up at the darkening sky above them, and Marko, looking suspiciously at Damak, followed his example. His eyes widened when he saw what was coming down from the clouds, and he smiled. _"Well,_" he said, flexing his fingers around the handle of his sword, _"this is gonna turned the tides of war..."_

* * *

**What's Marko seen? What's going to happen when Hiccup and Rachel reach Berk? What's happened to Black Ash? What's this mysterious golden triangle that Black Ash has found? Why am I asking all these questions? Why has this story only got five reviews?**

**Please Read & Review!**

**Nf991**


	18. A Traitor's Story

Chapter 18

Back of Berk, Black Ash suddenly heard a voice in his head: it was him:_ "Well, this is gonna turn the tides of War."_ Black Ash slowly shook his head to try and clear it. Looking down at his hands, he turned over the golden triangle he had found nearly a week ago. He had heard of a legend while he was inside Marko: it was known as the Keys of Life. Legend has it that, before all this, before time itself, on this world, there were three brothers and a sister of extraordinary powers: they had the powers to control the elements. The three brothers were called Fire, Earth and Air, and the sister was called Water. Near the end of the their lives, the created four separate Keys with the power to control the elements in them, and spread them across the Earth, waiting for someone who would be truly trusted with this kind of power. While he thought about the legend, someone walked through the doorframe of the building he had had built: the person was wearing a blood red bandana wrapped tightly around his forehead, and he was wearing a pure black vest.

"**What is it, Fradokos?"** asked an angered Black Ash, placing the golden triangle in his pocket and turned around to face the White Fury turned traitor. Fradokos lifted his left fist to his chest and asked, "Is there anything that needs doing, sir?" Black Ash sighed and said, **"Just keep an eye on the prisoners." **Nodding, Fradokos exited, leaving Black Ash alone with his thoughts. He remembered when Fradokos came here well...

_Five days ago_

"Sir! Someone's landed on the island!" shouted a Viking, to which Black Ash walked up to him and grabbed his neck, lifting the larger Viking a good three inches off the floor. **"How is this possible?!"** shouted Black Ash, adding pressure to the Vikings neck, causing his face to slowly turn purple. Black Ash growled angrily, and let the Viking go. Black Ash, looking down at the fallen Viking in disgust, heard several shouts and weapons clanging together, and he went to investigate. As the centre of the 'old village' came into view, the entire scene played out in front of him: Fradokos was fighting off several members of Alvin's tribe at once, and the rest of the tribe were surrounding them, jeering and shouting them on. As Black Ash walked towards Fradokos, the Vikings made a pathway between them, half of them moving to one side, and the other half, to the other. As he neared the centre, the number of Vikings attacking Fradokos started to decrease.

"**Enough," **ordered Black Ash as he reached the centre, and the remaining people attacking Fradokos stopped and moved back into the circle. Fradokos, panting slightly, put his sword back into its sheath and nodded his head at Black Ash, saying, "Black Ash." Black Ash was silent for a few moments, before saying, **"Fradokos." **An awkward silence followed Black Ash, and it seemed to be coming from the Vikings surrounding them. **"Don't you all have somewhere to be?"** hissed Black Ash, turning around to face the Vikings with his demon face. Slowly, the Vikings around them started to thin out, until it was only Black Ash, Fradokos and White Light, who was just about to jump into the sea to fish. Turning back to the White Fury member, Black Ash asked, **"What is your purpose of being here, you waste of breath?"** Fradokos sighed, and taking a deep breath, said, "I wish to become a member of your ranks, Black Ash." Black Ash was silent for a few seconds, before he threw his head back and laughed, sounding hollow and dark.

When he stopped, he looked Fradokos dead in the eye, and asked, **"Give me one reason-ONE reason- **

**why I shouldn't kill you where you stand."** Fradokos looked back at Black Ash fiercely, and said, "Because I can give you information: I can give you the weaknesses and nerves of Marko. That way, you will have the upper hand." Black Ash stopped and thought about what Fradokos had just said: true, he had been part of Marko for the best part of ten years, but Marko had been stubborn: he had managed to keep his darkness secrets and weakness' away from him. But Fradokos knew Marko better and for longer: he knew most, if not all, of Marko's weaknesses: he knew what made Marko tick, and what he could do to him to make him fall... **"Fine: you may join,"** growled Black Ash, turning around and walking away. But he stopped, turned his head around, and warned, **"but if you don't give me the information I need...I'll kill you: on the spot."**

_Present Day_

And since that day, Fradokos had lived up to his promise and had told everything he knew about Marko to Black Ahs: from his habits and his fears, to his weaknesses and to what made him tick. But Fradokos didn't give this information up for nothing: he had demanded to be in charge of the cells with Hiccup's friends in, so he could try and weasel out any useful information out of them. Fradokos had also managed to worm his way up the ranks, until he become Third-in-Command, after Alvin and Black Ash. He had also became Black Ash's most elite warrior: he had been trained to kill. Grunting, Black Ash got up from his chair and made his way towards the cells.

As he walked across the 'old village's' ruins, he spotted a giant wooden hut in the distance: the cells. As he entered, he looked into each of the three cells through there bars: the first one contained the twins, Tuffnut and Ruffnut, both of them had their hands chained to the walls, forcing them to stand. Their faces where covered in scars from previous... 'Information taking' as Black Ash called it. Moving on to the next cell, Black Ash saw the occupants of this cell were Fishlegs and Snotlout: they were sitting on their steel-based beds, starring into the wood opposite them. And, in the final cell, sat Astrid, her arms chained to the floor and her hair was a mess of dirty blonde. Looking at the end of the corridor that connected to the three cell doors, sat Fradokos, a torch above him, giving off little amount of light, as he turned a dagger over in his hands.

"**Any of them cracked yet?"**asked Black Ash, his eyes flashing to look at Astrid, who was looking at the floor in despair. Exhaling, Fradokos shook his head. Sighing, Black Ash lent against the wall and slowly slid down, until he was sitting on the floor next to Fradokos. **"How well do you know...**_**him?**_**"** asked Black Ash suddenly, trying not to use Marko's name. Fradokos sighed, and dropped the dagger, saying, "If I know him as well as I think I do, then it won't be long before he'll try to rise up against you." Black Ash's body suddenly became tense, and he asked, **"How long do you think until that happens?"** Fradokos shrugged his shoulders, and answered, "He probably left half a day ago: it'll taking nearly a week to get here from Molak." Black Ash mumbled, **"Hmm,"** and, with sudden speed, got up and started walking towards the door. "We're you going?" asked Fradokos, picking the dagger up again and standing up. Black Ash stopped, turned his head around, and said, **"I am going to warn the tribe: warning them, that we go to War in a week."**


	19. Second Vision and an Attack Gone Wrong

Chapter 19

It had been six days since Hiccup, Rachel, Toothless and Cloud left the ruins of Molak to Berk, without Marko. On the sixth day, the landed on a small, inhabited island that was just a half-day flight from Berk. They needed their sleep: they had been flying non-stop from the past five days to try and get to Berk as quickly as possible, and that included flying straight through the night. So it wasn't a surprise that, the second they touched down, Toothless and Cloud slumped onto the sand, eyes closed and sound asleep. Hiccup chuckled at their reaction to not flying for the first time in nearly a full week, and so, he and Rachel started unpacking the tents from their sleeping Dragons.

As Hiccup and Rachel were nailing in the final pegs of their tents, they heard a growl of distress coming from behind them. Turning around, the saw that Toothless had a look of distress on his face and was shifting in his sleep. "Hey, what do you think with Toothless?" asked Hiccup, tightening the rope of his tent. Rachel looked over at Toothless, frowned and said, "I don't know: I can only speak to Dragons, not read their minds." But little did they know that Toothless was having something much, much more than a nightmare: he was having another one of his... 'visions'.

_Toothless' Mind_

Toothless' inner Eye saw himself with Hiccup, Cloud and Rachel on Berk, and that they were completely surrounded by Alvin's tribe and Black Ash, who walked towards them. Hiccup was also walking forwards, pulling his bronze headed Fury sword as he went. "It's over Black Ash: surrender now and we might let you live." Black Ash just simply chuckled darkly, and he said, **"Oh no, Haddock: this...is only the beginning."** Once he said that, he lifted both of his hands up to shoulder level, and scrunched them into fists. Toothless saw the pained expression on Dream-Toothless and Dream-Cloud's faces, and he didn't like it one bit. After another few minutes of watching this, two strange coloured orbs appeared to be melting out of their scaled chests. **"Dragon fire is the most important part of a Dragon...without it, they are nothing!"**explained Black Ash, the two mysterious orbs of fire floating into his outstretched palms. Looking up that the Dragons and their riders, Black Ash shouted, **"ATTACK!"**

But before any of the Vikings of Alvin's tribe could move, a blinding white light blocked the sleeping Toothless' view. But even though his vision was blocked, he could still hear: he could hear Dragons roaring, sword striking another sword, and the shouts of humans. Moments later, the blinding white light vanished, revealing a new image. There was Hiccup, lying down on the grass, his face bloody and bruised. And, standing over him, was Alvin, lifting his axe into the air with both his hands. "Time to end the Haddock clan," Alvin growled, and brought the axe down. But as Toothless let out a roar that no-one seemed to hear, another white flash blocked his view. But this time, Toothless heard a human panting, footsteps running on hard ground, and more sounds of swords striking one another. Yet again, the blinding white light disappeared revealing another new image.

In this image, it showed Black Ash, running through the forest, constantly looking behind him as he ran away from something. Turning around, Toothless saw something running after Black Ash, but he couldn't get clear view of the mysterious chaser, because of how far away he was and by the trees constantly blocked him view. Turning around to look at Black Ash again, who had now stopped running and was looking all around, shouting, **"I know you're out there, Freak! Come out, NOW!"** Silence responded Black Ash demand, and the wind causing the trees to creak ominously in the dark. Suddenly,

a dark shape emerged from behind one of the trees, and said in a barely audible voice, _**"So many threats from a terrified coward."**_Black Ash growled threatening, and ran forward, sword aloft and was about to hit the stranger, but his sword was blocked by one of the strangers sword and Black Ash was kicked back into a tree, and just missed his head being sliced off by ducking quickly, causing the sword to be lodged into the tree.

Yanking the sword out of the tree, the stranger walking backwards before turning around and the walk turned into an all-out sprint. Black Ash growled, putting his sword back into its sheath, and ran after the stranger. Once they were out of sight, Toothless' vision started to fade into darkness. Once his sight was in total darkness, Toothless looked around fearfully, in case something was going to come out of nowhere. Suddenly, a pair of green eyes stared back at him from the darkness. But before anything else happened, Toothless heard Hiccup's voice: it sounded distant, almost like a whisper. _"Toothless! C'mon, buddy, wake up! We gotta go!"_ Toothless looked back at the eyes, but they had vanished.

_The Real World_

"Toothless! C'mon, buddy, wake up! We gotta go!" said Hiccup, placing his hands on the Night Fury's back and shaking him slightly. Groaning slightly, Toothless lazily opened one of his eyes to see what was happening. But the instant he opened his eye, he closed them again, seeing it was morning. _"It's time," _Toothless thought and Hiccup said at the same time. Groaning again, Toothless forced himself up and made a start on breakfast of the pile of fish Hiccup and Rachel had caught the previous night, but his stomach was tied in a knot, restricting his appetite. After a few minutes, Toothless shook his head and walked away from the pile and watched as Hiccup and Rachel packed away their tents. As they put their stuff onto Toothless and Cloud's back, Toothless heard Hiccup say, "So, you ready for this, Rachel?" Rachel looked over to him, and merely nodded. Sighing, Hiccup patted Toothless' head and asked, "You ready for this, bud?" Toothless grunted in response, trying his best not to look his rider in the eye, as it might show his fear.

Once the humans had finished packing their stuff onto their Dragons, Rachel and Hiccup mounted their Dragon's and started the final day of travelling to Berk. During the flight, Cloud and Toothless dipped down several times to get some fish to eat, but their stomachs was twisted so tightly, they didn't feel like eating and returned to their original height. Finally, when the sun was at the three o'clock position, Hiccup looked up and saw something that made him inhale sharply: Berk. "We're here," Hiccup called to Rachel, who caught up with him and they look at each other: this was it. Looking up, Hiccup saw something that lifted his hopes slightly: there was a storm brewing over Berk, which gave them ideal coverage. Motioning for Rachel to follow him, Hiccup pulled Toothless up into a climb, which Rachel and Cloud followed. Once they entered the clouds, the stopped climbing: high enough so they wouldn't be spotted, but low enough so they could still slightly see the ground below.

Once they had passed over the docks of Berk, Hiccup waited until they had just passed over the forest before he motioned for them to start heading down: once they had moved out of the clouds they had to move quickly so that Alvin's tribe couldn't accidently spot them. And after what seemed like half a lifetime, they landed somewhere in the southern forests. Silently getting off their Dragons, Hiccup and Rachel readied their weapons, and made their way towards the village. As they moved slowly through the trees, they heard movements several times and hid, only to find that it was some sort of rabbit or deer, and every time, they got up and started again. Soon, after a short trek across the forests, they arrived at the tree line that was close to Berk. Taking a few deep breaths, Hiccup looked over to Rachel and said, "Are you ready?" and she nodded, taking a deep breath as well. But, before they had any chance to move into the open, they both felt a throbbing pain coming from the back of their heads and they both fell face first into the ground. The last thing Hiccup heard was Toothless' and Cloud's roars, and the last thing he saw, where a pair of blood red eyes...


	20. The Dragon's Fire

Chapter 20

"**Wake-y, Wake-y!"**

SMACK! A punch to a face woke Hiccup up from his unconscious state. Panting and with blood dripping down from the corner of his mouth, Hiccup looked up, and found that he was looking at Black Ash, who was flexing his right fist and had a sinister smile plastered on his face. Looking around, he found that he was on what appeared to be a stone stage, and he was tightly tied to a wooden stake in the middle in the stone stage. Looking to the left, he saw the Rachel was next to him, and she was in the same predicament as he was. But as he looked around again, he could see that Cloud and Toothless were just behind the crowd of Vikings that were surrounding the stage: the Dragons had a few long, thick ropes over them, and they were staked down on either end. They also had a leather mouth piece to stop them from breathing fire, and they had a thick, wooden collar which was chained to the wooden slab on wheels.

Looking up at Black Ash with anger, Hiccup spat, "What do you want?" Black Ash simply looked at Hiccup and said, **"Revenge, simple as that."** He finished by punching Hiccup in the gut, causing the young boy to keel over and to cough up a small amount of blood. Turning around, Black Ash looked at the tribe, and said, **"Vikings: it is time. Bring forth the Dragons."** The moment he finished, the Vikings split into two separate groups and four Vikings each started pushing forward Cloud and Toothless, the two Dragons struggling furiously as they went. Once the two Furies were at the front, Black Ash walked forward until he was at the edge of the stage, and he lifted both of his arms to shoulder level, and he waited. When Hiccup looked up, he had a feeling for what Black Ash was waiting for: it was also sunset. As the sun started to dip below the horizon, Hiccup could feel the tension starting to build: something was about to happen, and he could tell that nothing good could come of it.

Finally, after what seemed like days to Hiccup, the sun completely vanished below the horizon and the stars was started to appear from the darkening sky. Taking a deep breath, Black Ash started to chant in a language that Hiccup didn't understand, but he knew one thing: this was not Dragonese. As Black Ash continued his chanting, Hiccup noticed that Toothless and Cloud were letting out uncomfortable whines and where trying their best to shift about, but the ropes restricted their movements. Finally, after repeating the last couple of lines again, Black Ash finished his chanting and screwed his hands into fists. Instantly, Toothless and Cloud were shifting about franticly and, in the process , the both managed to slip off their leather mouth holders, and they both let out agonising roars of pain. It brought tears to Hiccups eyes to see his Dragon in so much pain, and he could tell that Rachel was thinking the same: he had just heard a muffled sob brake through the roars.

After another minute of the sky being filled with constant roars of pain, Hiccup watched, wide eye, as two orbs of light started to melt out of Toothless' and Cloud's chest: Toothless was a dark purple, and Cloud's, a light orange. Once they were completely separated from the Dragons bodies, the two orbs slowly started to drift over towards Black Ahs, who had opened his hands again and had am hysterically mad expression on his face. Finally, the two orbs slowly landed into Black Ash's hands, and they pulsed slightly in his hands, and Hiccup could see that the light was slowly crawling up his arms, as though they were bines made of light. Hiccup suddenly heard a dark chuckle coming from Black Ash. And then another. And another. And it eventually turned into a fit of hysterical, and insane, laughs. As Black Ash

Continued his hysterical laughter, Hiccup shouted, "What did you do to them?!" Snapping his neck to face them, Black Ash's smile melted away as he walked up. Once he was about an foot away from Hiccup, Black Ash growled, **"A Dragon's fire is a precious thing, especially to a Dragon: without it, they are nothing more than overgrown lizards!"** Once he finished, he lifted his left hand, which had Toothless' fire on it, and suddenly, a bright blot of purple plasma fire erupted from Black Ash's hand, shot high into the sky, and exploded once it passed the clouds; the explosion could still be see, though.

Seeming satisfied that he had proven his point, Black Ash stepped closer and asked, **"Now, where is...Marko?"** Hiccup could tell by the look on Black Ash's face that he didn't like the fact that he had to use Marko's name. Hiccup looked up at face Black Ash fully, and calmly said, "I don't know." Growling, Black Ash screwed his right hand into a fist, which caused the light to pulse frantically in his hand, and punched Hiccup square in the nose, breaking it. Growling deeply, Black Ash said, **"Don't play games with me! Now you tell me where...**_**he **_**is, for am I going to have to kill your girlfriend?"**Black Ash snapped his fingers and Astrid, a Viking on each of her sides, walked forward, tears shining in her eyes. _Oh, Gods...her eyes_, though Hiccup, as he looked into her eyes...if the eyes were the doors to the soul, then Hiccup could see all the pain and torment she had been through. **"So what's it going to be, Haddock? Marko, or the girl?"** asked Black Ash, as one of the Viking keeping a hold of her drew a small dagger from his side and held it to Astrid's throat.

Hiccup was torn: he could save Astrid, but he didn't know what happened to Marko or where he was now, so Black Ash would accuse him of lying and kill Astrid. But if Hiccup chose Marko over his love, then Black Ash would kill Astrid, something Hiccup wasn't going to see, ever. So, Hiccup just shook his head and stayed silent. After a few tense moments, Black Ash growled as he walked over to Hiccup, and he grabbed his throat, and shouted, **"Tell me NOW, or I'll-"**

"_Or you'll what?"_ shouted a voice, causing everyone, Black Ash, Alvin, his tribe, Hiccup, Rachel and their Dragons to turn around, to find Damak standing just behind the Vikings. The Vikings all pulled out their weapons and started to move towards Damak, who made no movement to get the sword that was at his side. Black Ash chuckled darkly, and stepped down from the stone stage, saying, **"So, the One-Handed Man returns to kill the being who took his second hand."** Damak did nothing, but say, _"It is over, Demon: surrender, and there will be no blood spilt." _Black Ash walked towards him, the Vikings making a path as he went, and once he was directly in front of Damak, Black Ash said, **"Is that a fact?"** Damak simply replied, _"Oh, it is very much a fact," _and he lifted his good hand up and snapped his fingers, which echoed loudly around the silent village.

Roars filled the silent sky, along with the constant beating of wings. Looking up, the Vikings and Black Ash, along with Hiccup and Rachel, looked up to try and see what was up there, but they couldn't see anything. Suddenly, they could hear the sounds of something landing on the ground around them. Looking around, the Vikings tightened the grip of their weapons: whatever was surrounding them, they didn't like it. Finally, a ball of molten fire came from the darkness, causing the Vikings to scatter as the lava-like fire landed on the ground, spreading slowly across the ground. This was enough of a signal to the other...things surrounding the Vikings to light their own fires. Slowly, small fires started to appear all around the Vikings: they were Dragons. Hiccup looked around: he spotted Deadly Nadders of all different scales; Monstrous Nightmares, there molten fire breath slowly spreading in front of them. He also saw Hideous Zippleback's, their heads creating sparks and gas, ready to strike. There were also Gronkles, there armour clearly visible in the light from the fires. And...White Furies: dotted around the rows and rows of Dragons, were White Furies, there pure white scales shining in the fire.

The more Hiccup looked around, the more people he saw either riding Dragons or standing amongst them, their weapons drawn. Then, looking above, Hiccup spotted a Monstrous Nightmare that hadn't landed, hovering in the sky, as though it was waiting for something. Then, he spotted something: there was someone on the Nightmare's back: whoever they were, they were standing on the back, as though they were going to just. And they were. Hiccup's breath caught in his throat as the figure jumped, causing multiple gasps to come from the Vikings. As the stranger picked up speed and got closer to the ground, Hiccup saw that the figure was wearing a shiny, black suit of armour. Finally, the figure crashed into the ground, sending a small shockwave to emit from the impact. The figure, surprisingly, was unhurt: he had landed in a one-knee kneeling position with his left fist resting on the ground, while the right hand rested in the right knee. As the figure got up, Hiccup noticed that he had a pair of bright, green eyes. Hiccup looked down at Toothless, who eyes were wide in shock: he recognised those eyes.

"It is time, Black Ash," said Marko, pulling a sword from the sheath on his side, "to face destiny: 'neither can live while the other dies.'"

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**DUM-DUM-DUM-DUMMMMMMM!**

**I will try to upload the next chapter as soon I can!**

**Nf991**


	21. The Final Battle Part 1

**Warning: the next few chapters may, and probably will, contain blood and graphic deaths**

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Chapter 21

Black Ash stood there, completely shocked as he looked around at the rows of different Dragons, all prepared to risk their life's to help the Dragon King. Black Ash growled, and said, **"Come to face me at last, Freak? Or are you going to turn talk and run, like last time?"** Marko didn't retaliate, but lifted his sword into the air, and shouted, _"Dragons! Take up Arm's!"_ Like a chain reaction, all the Dragons started to light their fires, ready to attack. While the Dragon's readied their fires, the humans started pulling out their weapons; some pulled down crossbows while others pulled out sword and small daggers. A stand-off started, the Dragons and Dragon Rider's looking down upon Alvin's tribe, who was slowly starting to back away. While the stand-off continued, Hiccup felt someone come up behind him and started cutting the ropes around his wrists. "Who's there?" whispered Hiccup, turning his head to try and get a look at their supposed saviour. But the figure didn't answer, and once he finished cutting free Hiccup, he quickly moved to cut Rachel's rope, and once he was done, the figure ran off before Rachel or Hiccup could get a closer look at him.

"Who do you think that was?" whispered Hiccup as he and Rachel quietly slipped off the opposite side of the stage that Black Ash was facing. Rachel shrugged and slowly, they walked around the Vikings and hid behind what remained of a burnt wooden pillar of a house. Hiccup cautiously peeked around to see if any of the Vikings had spotted them. Thankfully, none of the Vikings saw them: they were too busy starring down the Dragons. Suddenly, they heard Black Ash scream, **"ATTACK!"** and soon the air was thick with the sound of pounding footsteps the ground, along with Dragon's roars and firing their fire balls. Taking a deep breath, Hiccup and Rachel made a run for it across the battlefield, and they immediately had to duck quickly to avoid their heads being cut off by one of the Vikings of Alvin's tribe cutting their heads off. Thankfully, they saw one of the people that were amongst the Dragons sneak up behind the Vikings and stabbed a sword through his back, sending it so deep that it sliced through to the front.

Gagging heavily, the Viking keeled forwards, causing the sword to be pushed up when he hit the ground. As the member of the Army pulled out his sword, he asked, "I take it that you're the 'Hiccup' that the Dragon King's always on about?" Surprised, Hiccup quickly nodded, and started looking around, thinking that he was a primary target. Their saviour slid his sword back into sheath, he said, "Quickly, if we hurry, we can still get to him before he goes after that Demon." Nodding, Hiccup, Rachel and their saviour started to run straight through the battle, hoping to find Marko before he found Black Ash. As they ran through the thick of the battle, already, they were having to avoid stepping over bodies: the air around them was thick with the smell of blood. Along the way, Hiccup spotted two Vikings standing back-to-back: one of them was facing off a purple-scaled Deadly Nadder, while the other was trying to fight off a Monstrous Nightmare, but they were failing badly.

Finally, they managed to run out through the battle, unhurt and started looking around until they saw Marko: he was standing on an angled rock, looking over the battle; looking for...**him. **"Marko!" shouted Hiccup, and Marko immediately snapped his head to find that Hiccup, Rachel and one of his soldiers were running towards them: a surprised smile broke onto his face. He jumped down from the rock and started walking towards them. When the met, Rachel immediately flung her arms around him, crying into his shoulder. Surprised and feeling slightly awkward, Marko tried to gesture to Hiccup to ask what to do, and Hiccup gestured for him to put his arms around her. And so Marko did. Suddenly, Rachel pulled herself away from Marko and slapped him across the face. Hard. Gasping in pain, Marko, rubbing his right cheek, asked, "What was that for?" Pointing a finger at him, Rachel replied angrily, "That's for making us leave without you!" Marko looked at Hiccup for advice, but Hiccup merely shrugged. "And this," continued Rachel, placing both her hands on Marko's face, "is for coming to save us." She started to slowly move her head towards Marko's, and they were almost touching...

Suddenly, a Viking wielding an axe came out of nowhere, screaming, and went for Marko. Marko and Rachel split, letting the Viking run down the middle, until Marko caught him around the neck. He then twisted the Vikings neck, and a distinctive SNAP! Indicated that the Viking's neck had been broken, causing Hiccup to shudder. "How about we fight now, then do this stuff later?" asked Marko, pulling out one of the sword on his back and handing it to Rachel. Marko then handed another one to Hiccup and said, "You try and find your sword: until then, you can use mine." Marko then ran off into the thick of the battle, flinging a Viking over his shoulder in the progress. Suddenly, Hiccup and Rachel were surrounded by a group of Vikings, sniggering and slowly circling them. But before any of the Vikings could move, two White Fury dragons and a Deadly Nadder landed behind the Vikings, hissing and spitting small fireballs at the Vikings. It wasn't long before the Vikings, screaming and flailing their arms about, ran away with the Dragon's chasing after them. _"Thank you!"_ called Rachel, and the Deadly Nadder chirped in response. "Come on! Let's try and Marko!" shouted Hiccup, and the two of them ran off towards the direction where they last saw Marko.

_Unknown _

Meanwhile, in the cells where the rest of Hiccup's friends were being held, the mysterious figure that cut Hiccup and Rachel free was running towards the wooden building. Once he entered the building, the reached into a pocket and pulled out a small, metal key: the key to their cells. As he walked towards Ruffnut and Tuffnut's cell, Ruffnut said, "What are you doing here?" The figure didn't answer as he slid the key into the lock, twisted it and opened the door. When he walked in, he immediately started unlocking Ruffnut's cuffs. "Wha?" she asked, as the stranger finished releasing her and moved on to her brother, upon who he did the same. "Why are you doing this?" asked Tuffnut, rubbing his wrists. The stranger didn't answer, and exited their cell and moved onto opening Snotlout and Fishleg's cell.

Once they were all out, the stranger walked away, but was knocked to the floor when Snotlout tackled him, and once he had flipped him over onto his back, Snotlout held him at the throat and asked, "Why are you doing this? After all the things you did to us, why release us?" The figure didn't answer, but instead he grabbed Snotlout's tunic and flipped him over, so that now Snotlout was flat against the floor and the figure was kneeling above him. _"I'm helping a friend,"_ muttered the figure, but all Snotlout heard was a load of grunts and hisses. After a few moments, the stranger got off of Snotlout and walked out of the building, calling, "What are you waiting for? There's a battle going on!"

_Marko_

As the mysterious figure walked away from the prison cells, Marko walked through the battle, blocking random attacks and occasionally, stabbing his sword through the backs of Vikings or slicing the windpipe out of Viking's necks. But he wasn't concentration on the Vikings surround him: all he cared about was finding and killing...**him. **Suddenly, he spotted a flash of black ran across the battlefield. Eyes fixed on where he last saw the blur of black, Marko made a bee-line straight towards it, pushing people, both ally and enemy, who got in his way. Then, he saw it again, only this time, it saw him: those blood red eyes were staring back at Marko. Then, before Marko could move, Black Ash ran towards the forest and out of sight. Tightening the grip on his sword, Marko started running through the main Battle, and into the forest, like a hunter, chasing after its prey...


	22. The Final Battle Part 2

Chapter 22

Black Ash ran through the forest, panting and constantly looking over his shoulder. Every so often, he would trip over a small rock or a root that curved out of the ground and stumble, only to push himself up and continue running. After another few minutes of running and looking over his shoulder, Black Ash slid to a stop in an opening in the trees. Tightening the grip he had on his sword, Black Ash started to look around, shouting, **"I know you're out there, Freak! Come out, NOW!"** A short silence followed his outburst, but, suddenly, a dark shape emerged from behind one of the trees and started to walk towards him. "_So many threats from a terrified coward,"_ Marko darkly said, flexing his fingers around his sword. **"So, are you ready to die?"** asked Black Ash, grabbing his sword with both his hands and slowly lifting it up. Marko looked up at Black Ash, and replied, _"I was about to ask you the same thing, Demon."_ Letting out a war cry, Black Ash ran forward, swinging his sword downwards, but Marko blocked it easily and kicked Black Ash back. Winded, Black Ash just managed to block one of Marko's blows to his chest.

"**How long can you keep this up, Freak?"** shouted Black Ash, blocking another one of Marko's blows and crossing their swords, looking Marko dead in the eyes. _"So long as there is breath in this body, I will never give up!"_ retaliated Marko, grabbing the end of Black Ash's sword and pushing it back. As Black Ash ran forward for another attack, Marko bent over and, gathering some dirt into his hand, threw the dirt into Black Ash's face, who let out a roar of pain and used his free hand to try and get the dirt out. While Black Ash's was temporarily blinded, Marko tried to strike him down, but he had to duck when Black Ash shot a fireball from his hand, just inches from where Marko's head was. When he got back up, Black Ash, looking as though he would kill anyone who got between him and Marko, said, **"Enough...playing...around!"** He then fired another fireball, point blank at Marko. Having no other option, Marko crossed him arms and hoped for the best. The fireball collided with him, causing him to be fired backwards, his arms still crossed. He slid back nearly fifty feet before crashing into a tree; the impact caused the tree to topple over.

With his leather shirt burning and his forearm's feeling as though they were on fire, Marko looked up to see Black Ash running his hand that had the fireball in it up his sword, causing the sword to have a fiery affect. Black Ash, walked towards Marko, saying, **"Enough toying around. I will end this now." **But before Black Ash could reach Marko, Marko got up and ran towards him, and aimed to hit Black Ash. Black Ash blocked this, but Marko was already thinking ahead: when Black Ash blocked his sword, Marko quickly brought it back and hit Black Ash's right leg, causing the Demon to fall to one knee. But Black Ash used an attack that Marko didn't see coming: while Black Ash was on one knee, he swung his sword and it hit his left thigh, causing it to spill blood heavily. Limping, Marko backed away, as Black Ash, using his sword to lean on, got up and Marko heard the familiar sound of cloth ripping. **"Follow me if you can!"** taunted Black Ash, and with his wings giving a mighty flap, shot into the air, but not before Marko jumped and grabbed onto one of his legs and was hanging on for dear life. "**HEY! Get off me!"** shouted Black Ash, and started to perform tricky and potentially dangerous air manoeuvres to try and get Marko off him. But no matter what he did, Marko refused to let go. Finally, they were out to sea and Marko spotted a pillar of stone that was surrounded by several others, and they were at least fifty feet from sea level. Smiling, Marko slowly reached up and, with strength he didn't know he had, grabbed one of Black Ash's wings and pulled it down, which resulted in a loud SNAP coming from the base of Black Ash's wing. Roaring in pain, Black Ash started an uncontrollable dive

towards the centre pillar, and Marko was just able to hold on at these speeds. In the final few seconds before impact, Marko let go and landed onto another pillar that was a few away from the one Black Ash crashed onto. When Black Ash crashed onto the stone pillar, Marko slowly started to jump from pillar to pillar towards the centre pillar, until he reached the centre pillar where Black Ash's body lay. Looking around, Marko saw that the top of the pillar was about twenty feet from side to side: more than enough room to fight. Moments later, Black Ash started to stir and slowly, started to get up. Breathing deeply and groaning in pain, Black Ash forced the wings into his back, and said, **"So, let's finish this!"**

The second Black Ash said this, the two of them tightened their grips on their swords and, both letting out a war cry, they started to run towards each other. Marko attacked first: he swung his sword around, like a golf club, and aimed for Black Ash's abdomen, but Black Ash spotted this and blocked it, pushing him back in the progress. Marko returned, this time using a combo: first he aimed for Black Ash's head, then his chest, and then he tried to hit his right wrist. But each time he tried to hit him, Black Ash blocked him, again and again. Finally, Marko tried a different tactic: instead of being on the offensive, he tried the defensive. He taunted Black Ash, which worked and caused him to go on the offensive. But this was proving more and more difficult the more attacks he had to block: it was as though Black Ash was becoming stronger and faster. Finally, after another two minutes of blocking his attacks, Marko finally faltered: he managed to block an attack from Black Ash to his chest, but he wasn't quick enough to stop him swinging at his head.

Marko fell to the ground, the Dragon King helmet flying off his head and falling into the sea below. Flipping himself over, Marko was staring down the blade of Black Ash's sword. **"You've got fight in you, I'll give you that. But, this time, you ARE going to die,"** said Black Ash, pulling back his sword for the final blow. Marko closed his eyes, but instead of the pain of the sword going through him, he heard Black Ash saying something to him. **"You're just like your father: weak, pathetic, and completely worthless."** As Black Ash said this, Marko started to fell an anger deep inside him starting to boil. "Don't you dare say anything against my father," whispered Marko, causing Black Ash to look at him and said, **"I'm sorry? I didn't hear that."** Breathing deeply, Marko looked at Black Ash, and he instantly felt a boiling hatred towards that...THING...that was in front him. "I said," started Marko, feeling a mild pain in his eyes again, "don't...say...that...about...my...FATHER!" He shouted the last part, and with sudden speed and energy, sprang up from his previous position and tackled Black Ash, pushing him back. When Marko let Black Ash go, Black Ash looked up, and saw something that made even his blood run cold.

Red: that was the colour of his eyes; not blue or green: red, just like his. Slowly, Black Ash started to crawl backwards, but before he could move a safe distance, Marko snapped his neck down and Black Ash and grabbed his neck. As Black Ash started to choke, Marko lifted him up and held him over the edge. Black Ash looked over at Marko, who was wearing a wicked smile, and hissed, in a demented voice like his, _**"Well, what do ya know? I managed to get a few of your features."**_ Before Black Ash could try to say anything, he saw Marko's feet leave the ground and they both started to float higher into the air. _**"Looks like we don't both need wings to fly,"**_ taunted Marko, and with break neck speed, they fly through the air back towards Berk.

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**So, what's Marko got in for Black Ash? Who is this mysterious stranger that help Hiccup and his friends? All will be revealed in the next chapter(s)**


	23. The Twofaced Traitor

Chapter 23

_Hiccup and Rachel_

As the final members of Alvin's tribe were finished off by either being burnt or stabbed to death, Hiccup and Rachel walked around the once fully filled battlefield, looking at the piles of dead bodies that were being formed by the Dragon King's army. "Where do you think Marko is?" asked Hiccup, walking around a dead body that had yet to be added to a pile. Rachel didn't answer: her most romantic moment she had ever had with Marko was ruined, and he might not even know what she felt about him. Suddenly, a blur of black and white shot across the sky and crashed into the ground, causing a massive cloud of dirt to be forced up. When the dirt cloud cleared, Hiccup saw what who it was: Marko and Black Ash. "Marko!" shouted Rachel, and she and Hiccup started to run towards him, but stopped when he didn't even flinch when Rachel called his name. Then, Hiccup leaned over to Rachel and whispered, "His eyes, Rachel: look as his eyes."

Looking at Hiccup suspiciously, but she did what Hiccup said, and she gasped, "No." Meanwhile, Marko stood there, hand squeezing the life out of Black Ash, who had been forced to kneel, with his face going purple. "Marko stop! This isn't the way!" shouted Rachel, walking towards Marko, but he wasn't moving, but his eyes were constantly fixed on Black Ash. _**"This is what must be done,"**_ hissed Marko in a demented voice, causing Rachel to step back in shock. But Rachel quickly recovered and she said, "Marko, this isn't you: this is Black Ash, his ways have rubbed off on you." Marko flashed a slight side glance at Rachel, but returned to his normal death glare at Black Ash, whose face had now turned blue. "Marko, please," whispered Rachel, resting her hand on his shoulder. The affect was instant: the moment she rested her hand on his shoulder, Marko let out a gasped and fell backwards, letting go of Black Ash as he did. As Marko keeled over onto his back, Black Ash fell to his hands and knees and started taking laboured breaths.

"Marko!" shouted Rachel, kneeling down beside him as he was taking deep breaths. As Rachel looked at him, she noticed that his eyes had returned to their normal icy blue colour. "No," Marko suddenly said, shaking his head and going pale slightly. "No," Marko repeated, and Rachel asked, "No what?" Looking up at her, Marko whispered, "No, I won't become like him." Rachel looked up at Black Ash, who by now had started to get up. While the help of Rachel, Marko got up as well and started to walk towards Black Ash. But with lightning fast reactions, Black Ash grabbed Rachel from his side and picked up a crossbow from the floor, and held it to her neck. **"This has gone up long enough, Freak! Kill yourself now, or the girl dies!"** shouted Black Ash, pushing the point of the arrow pressing deeper into Rachel's neck, who whimpered in pain. "Leave her out of this, Demon!" shouted Marko, pointing a finger threateningly at Black Ash. But Black Ash merely smirked, and rested his finger on the trigger. Suddenly, Marko looked over Black Ash's shoulder, and a smile broke out over his face.

All of a sudden, Black Ash felt a blade sink deeply into his back, causing him to let go of Rachel and drop the crossbow. Gagging and with blood coming heavily out of his mouth, Black Ash fell to his knees, before falling flat on his face, a small pool of blood forming around his face. Looking back up, Marko smiled and the others, who had also just seen who was behind Black Ash, gasped and took steps back in shock. There, with a tomahawk in hand, stood Fradokos, a causal look playing its way across his face. There was also another tomahawk lodged into Black Ash's spine, which still had blood seeping out of it. "_So, all went according to plan?" _asked Fradokos, dropping the tomahawk and walking over Black Ash. While the rest of them readied their weapons and entered their fighting stances, Marko merely walked forward to meet Fradokos. When they met, a smile appeared on Marko's face, and he said, _"Perfectly, brother,"_ and extended his hand to Fradokos, who accepted it and the two of them shook hands: THIS caused everyone to drop their weapons in shock. "OK! Time for explanations!" shouted Rachel, walking forward and separating Marko and Fradokos, and pointed the crossbow that Black Ash had threatened to kill her at Fradokos, "Start talking!"

Putting his hands up, Fradokos said, "Hey, hey, hey: d'you think you can put that down?" as he pointed at the crossbow. But when Rachel didn't lower the crossbow, Marko put his hand on the crossbow and forced Rachel to lower it, saying, "Drop it, Rachel: he's on our side." Looking at Marko as though he had turned into a goblin, Rachel gasped, "Are you crazy?! Don't you remember when he turned on us on Molak?" Marko just shook his head, and said, "He was never against us, Rachel." Looking at Fradokos, Marko said, "Do you want to tell this one, brother?" Looking at Marko, Fradokos nodded and stepped forward and started his story.

"Well, let me start at the beginning: the night with me and Rachel arrived on Berk, Marko called me into the forest, to talk to me about something important. When I reached him, he told me that he had this feeling inside of him: like some sixth sense that told him that Black Ash was going to come out of him soon. So, he told me that he and I needed to think of a plan to act on when that time came. So, ever since our first day on Berk, we've been shaping and re-shaping our plans until we had one for every situation. An-"

"I'm sorry! When were you going to tell me about this?!" interrupted Rachel, to which Marko replied, "I thought that the less people that knew, the better. Anyway, Fradokos: please continue." Fradokos looked at Marko and said, "Thank you Marko. Anyway..."

"As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted, I was saying that I was never against Marko, even when it looked like I was when he fled Berk: it was all going according to plan. After we landed, I was meant to act as though I was betraying you and 'join' Black Ash. But all I was really doing was learning and pretending: and in case you were wondering, it was me who freed Hiccup and Rachel, as well as your friends, Hiccup." Judging by their shocked faces, they were VERY surprised by this new information. But at that point, Marko shook and his head and said, "There's still one thing that hasn't gone according to plan." Looking at Marko with confusion, Fradokos said, "But Brother, everything has gone exactly to plan: we killed Black Ash, we freed the survivors of Berk, and, oh yeah, we fought off a tribe of Vikings in our spare time! What hasn't gone to plan?"

Marko sighed and, taking off the Dragon King chest plate, said, "The prophecy sad that I had to die if Black Ash died. I'm still here, so something isn't right. So I'll ask you again, why am I not dea-" Marko was cut off by a choking sound coming from behind them. Turning around, the saw Black Ash, pushing himself onto his elbows, a ring of blood surrounding his mouth, and shouted, **"Tra...itor!"** And it was at that point that Marko noticed that Black Ash had the crossbow that he had and was pointing it at Rachel. "RACHEL!" shouted Marko as Black Ash squeezed the trigger, and jumped in front of Rachel. Just before the arrow would've hit Rachel, Marko get in the way and the arrow pierced his chest, imbedding itself into his left lung. Gagging on his own blood, Marko fell to the floor, just as Black Ash dropped the crossbow and fell dead, for good this time. "MARKO!" cried Rachel, kneeling down beside him.


	24. Death and Life

Chapter 24

"Marko! Marko, please, stay with me, Marko!" cried Rachel, tears cascading down her cheeks as she held the form of the dying Marko. Coughing up blood, Marko looked down and chuckled roughly, saying, "Well...That's gonna leave a-ahh!- a mark." Rachel couldn't help but let a small smile creep onto her face: Marko always had that habit of making her smile, no matter how bad the situation. Shaking her head, Rachel said, "Don't worry Marko, we can fix this. We can-" Marko cut her off by saying, "No, Rachel; it is my time. Black Ash is dead, and I-I must follow. It is fate." With more tears falling down her cheeks, Rachel whispered, "Don't you dare tell me its fate that you have to die. Don't you dare! I can't lose you, not now!" Marko stiffed a small smile, only to have it ruined by a wave of pain that caused him to let out a cry of pain. Fradokos knelt on Marko's other side, and said, "Don't worry, Brother, we will find a way to save you."

Looking at Fradokos, Marko lifted a shaky hand and placed it on Fradokos' shoulder, and said, "The prophecy has been fulfilled. Now that Black Ash is dead, the Dragon's fire will return to them." Turning around, Fradokos and Hiccup saw that two orbs of light leave Black Ash's hands and return to their Dragon's chests: Rachel didn't even bother to look up, as she was too busy crying over Marko. When the Dragon's stopped testing to see if their fire was still working perfectly, Toothless saw Marko's body lying against Rachel, and cautiously walked towards them. Nudging Hiccup's hand with his snout, Toothless crooned in concern. "It's alright, bud," comforted Hiccup, lightly scratching the top of the Night Fury's head, "I'm sure that he's gonna to fine." But even Hiccup knew that Marko had little to no chance of making it out of this one. "Well, see you in another life, ay, Brother?" said Marko weakly, before he let out a final gasp of breath, before his head fell onto Rachel's lap and his hand fell from Fradokos' shoulder and onto the floor.

Rachel couldn't hold back the tears and cried heavily, her tears falling from her face and landing on Marko's lifeless and pale face. Standing up, Fradokos walked around, trying to avoid the others seeing the tears of sorrow leaving his eyes. Shaking his head, Hiccup separated from the group, just as the Dragon's lifted up their heads and let out a fireball at the same time, resulting in the entire sky being illuminated. As the fireballs died down, Hiccup arrived at his destination: the body of Black Ash. The dead body of the Demon was lying face down on the grass, a small puddle of still wet blood surrounding the body. Looking at the body in disgust, Hiccup gently kicked the body until it was facing up. There was a circle of blood surrounding his mouth, and Hiccup could still see the look of blood-lust evident in Black Ash's slightly faded red eyes. Then, something caught Hiccup's eye.

Kneeling down, Hiccup reached into one of the pockets of Black Ash's hoodie and pulled out the golden triangle that Black Ash had salvaged from underneath Berk. Getting up again, Hiccup walked back over to the group and asked Fradokos, "Hey, do you know what this is?" Fradokos, who had tears falling down his face, instantly widened his eyes as he looked at the triangle. "I think," said Fradokos, taking the triangle from Hiccup, "this is the only hope we have left of saving Marko." Walking back of to Rachel, Fradokos knelt down beside her and said, "Rachel, listen to me: I think I know something that we can do to save Marko." At this, Rachel snapped her head sharply to look at Fradokos, and her eyes landed on the golden triangle. "Is that what I think it is?" whispered Rachel, taking one of her shaky hands and running it down the golden triangle, looking at Fradokos to see if she was right. "Yes," answered Fradokos, nodding, "this looks like one of the Keys of Life: the Earth one, judging by the colour of the gems. If the legend is true, then this SHOULD bring Marko back to life."

There was silence that followed what Fradokos said, and he then added, "So are you ready to do this?" Taking a deep breath, Rachel reluctantly let go of Marko and got up, answering, "Yes: let's do this." As Rachel and Fradokos ushered everyone back, Hiccup moved so he was in near Fradokos, and asked, "What are you going to do?" Fradokos looked over to Hiccup and said, "This is one of the four Keys of Life: legend says that it can bring a being back from the dead. It's the only thing that we can think of to help Marko." Nodding silently, Hiccup backed away with the rest of the crowd, until there was a large area between Marko's body and the crowd. Silently, Fradokos placed the Key of Life onto Marko's chest and back away, and waited; for what, Hiccup didn't know.

Then, suddenly, a mystic golden light started to float out of the Key and out of Marko's hands and face. Backing away, Fradokos, Rachel and Hiccup watched as the mystic glow started to get thicker and brighter. As the golden glow started to block Marko's face and hands from view, Hiccup noticed that Marko's body had started to lift off the ground. Everyone watched as Marko's body was floating a few feet in the air, and that the Key was somehow able to stay on Marko's chest. Then, Rachel pointed out that the arrow that was sticking out of his chest suddenly shot out of him, and imbedded itself into the ground. Suddenly, the golden light intensified and made Marko go into a cross position. The light was so intense; it caused everyone around to shield their eyes from it. Lowering his arm ever so slightly, Hiccup saw Marko's body arched with his arms out stretched, and that he was slowly losing height. Finally, Marko feet landed on the ground and, miraculously, he was alive!

Looking around, Marko spotted everyone and patted his chest with his arm, as though he was trying to find the arrow that killed him. Suddenly, he was knocked to the ground by Rachel, who hugged him like her life depended on it. "R-Rachel," stuttered Marko, but was cut off by Rachel kissing him full on the lips. "Don't ever –**EVER – **do that again, okay?" whispered Rachel, getting back up again and offered a hand to help him up. Smiling, Marko accepted her hand and got up, only to be patted on the back by Fradokos, who said, "Welcome back, Brother." Smiling, Marko placed his hand on Fradokos' shoulder, and said, "It's good to be back, Brother." Then, Marko noticed the Key of Life on his chest. Curious, he pulled it off of him and examined it. "Is this what I think it is?" asked Marko, to which Rachel and Fradokos nodded. Running his hand down the golden triangle, Marko quickly asked, "Did he have any of the others on him?" When Fradokos and Rachel shook their heads, Hiccup walked forward and asked, "Sorry, but, what is that? And what do you mean, 'others'?"

But before Marko could answer, a blinding white light blocked him from view from the others. But when the light stopped, Marko wasn't anywhere in sight. "MARKO!" shouted Rachel, looking all around to see if she could see him. Suddenly, another white light appeared, this time blocking Hiccup from view. And again, the light disappeared; only this time, Hiccup was nowhere to be seen. All at once, the group of humans and Dragons thought the same thing at the same time.

"_OK: what the hell just happened?!"_

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**Marko and Hiccup will return in...The Key Chronicles - (Note, there will be at least three)**

**Hope you enjoyed the story! Please R&R!**

**Nf991**

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**A/R: Since What the Smeg just Happened? was getting bad reviews, I've deleted it and will start from scratch. If you have any idea where Marko and Hiccup should go to find the Keys, please leave it in a review or PM me**

**Nf991**


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